Two  YEARS  WITH  THE 
BIRDS  ON  A  FARM. 


BY  EDWARD   HOWE   FORBUSH, 

ORNITHOLOGIST,  MASSACHUSETTS  STATE  BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE. 


LECTURE  DELIVERED  AT  THE  PUBLIC  WINTER  MEETING  OF  THE 

MASSACHUSETTS  STATE  BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE, 

AT  NORTH  ADAMS,  DEC.  2,  1902. 


SECOND  EDITION.    REVISED  JUNE,  1908. 


BOSTON : 

WRIGHT   &   POTTER    PRINTING   CO.,    STATE    PRINTERS, 

18  POST  OFFICE  SQUARE. 

1908. 


Two  YEARS  WITH  THE 
BIRDS  ON  A  FARM./ 


BY  EDWARD   HOWE  J>ORBUSH, 

ORNITHOLOGIST,  MASSACHUSETTS  STATE  BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE. 


LECTURE  DELIVERED  AT  THE  PUBLIC  WINTER  MEETING  OF /THE 

MASSACHUSETTS  STATE  BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE, 

AT  NORTH  ADAMS,'  DEC.  2,  1902. 


SECOND  EDITION.    REVISED  JUNE,  1908. 


BOSTON : 

WRIGHT   £   POTTER   PRINTING   CO.,    STATE   PRINTERS, 

1 8  POST  OFFICE  SQUARE. 

1908. 


APPROVED  BY 
THE  STATE  BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION. 


TWO  YEARS  WITH  THE  BIRDS  ON  A  FARM. 


BY  EDWARD  HOWE  FORBUSH,  ORNITHOLOGIST,  MASSACHUSETTS  STATE  BOARD  OF 
AGRICULTURE. 


Some  investigations  made  by  your  ornithologist,  under  the 
auspices  of  this  Board,  in  the  last  years  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, gave  you  abundant  evidence  of  the  usefulness  of  the 
smaller  land  birds  in  orchard  and  woodland;  but  no  oppor- 
tunity offered  to  study  the  influence  exerted  by  birds  on  small 
fruit  and  vegetable  growing  until  the  year  1900. 

This  lecture  is,  mainly,  the  result  of  observations  made  by 
your  ornithologist  while  at  work  on  the  land,  and,  much  of 
the  time,  in  his  kitchen  garden.  The  facts  ascertained  are 
such  as  any  other  observing  farmer  might  gather,  were  he 
familiar  with  our  common  birds.  The  observations  of  which 
this  lecture  constitutes  a  partial  record  were  begun  in  July, 
1900,  and  have  been  continued  up  to  a  very  recent  date. 

Since  it  is  intended  to  pursue  these  investigations  further 
in  the  same  field  for  the  benefit  of  this  Board,  it  may  be  well 
first  briefly  to  describe  the  geographical  position  of  the  farm, 
climate,  soil,  flora  and  fauna.  The  place  is  situated  in  Ware- 
ham,  Mass.,  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Agawam  River,  near 
its  junction  with  the  Wankinco.  These  two  rivers,  uniting 
here,  form  the  Wareham  River,  a  tidal  stream.  The  salt  water 
flows  for  some  distance  up  each  of  these  tributaries,  and,  return- 
ing, empties  into  Buzzard's  Bay  three  miles  below. 

The  farm  was  selected  as  one  lying  directly  in  the  migration 
route  of  both  land  birds  and  water  birds,  and  is  well  adapted 
to  sustain  a  large  and  varied  bird  population.  It  lies  near  the 
head  of  Buzzard's  Bay,  in  or  near  the  line  of  flight  of  those 
migrating  sea  and  shore  birds  which  come  up  along  the  waters 
or  shores  of  Long  Island  Sound  in  their  northward  migrations, 
and,  crossing  the  mouth  of  Narragansett  Bay,  pass  up  Buz- 


zard's  Bay  or  its  west  shore,  crossing  Wareham  and  Plymouth, 
and  thus  reaching  the  shores  or  waters  of  Cape  Cod  Bay,  leav- 
ing Cape  Cod  out  of  their  itinerary.  The  distance  saved  by 
such  a  course  is  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  miles. 

Observation  shows  that  many  birds  take  advantage  of  this 
saving  of  time  and  distance  both  in  their  northward  and  south- 
ward journeyings,  though  many  more  follow  on  around  the 
devious  shores  of  the  Cape.  Flights  of  land  birds  which  have 
crossed  the  comparatively  narrow  channels  of  Narragansett 
Bay  into  Tiverton,  Westport  and  Dartmouth  are  checked  and 
turned  northward  by  the  broad  expanse  of  Buzzard's  Bay, 
most  of  them  passing  up  its  western  shore,  and,  becoming 
somewhat  massed  here,  spread  out  again  over  Warehain, 
Plymouth,  Carver  and  Middleborough,  on  their  way  north- 
ward and  eastward.  The  field  of  observation,  therefore,  is 
particularly  favorable  for  the  study  of  certain  migrating  birds. 

The  winters  are  comparatively  mild,  with  more  rain  and  less 
snow  than  falls  in  western  Massachusetts.  The  thermometer 
usually  remains  well  above  zero,  dropping  below  that  point 
occasionally,  but  seldom  remaining  long  below  it.  Snow  does 
not  often  lie  at  great  depth,  or  long  at  a  time.  In  winter  the 
bird  population  is  comparatively  large.  We  are  somewhat 
protected  from  the  east  and  northeast  winds,  which  sweep  the 
coast  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  by  a  tract  of  hilly  and  partially 
wooded  country,  sixteen  miles  wide,  which  lies  between  the 
head  of  Buzzard's  Bay  and  the  coast  at  Plymouth.  Many 
birds,  which  forsake  the  colder  and  more  snowy  regions  of  the 
State  in  winter,  remain  along  the  shores  of  Buzzard's  Bay  all 
this  inclement  season.  Jays,  crows,  flickers  and  cedar  birds 
are  commonly  seen.  Song  sparrows,  robins,  shore  larks,  myrtle 
warblers  and  other  land  birds  are  more  or  less  plentiful,  in 
addition  to  the  usual  winter  residents  or  migrants.  Gulls  and 
certain  other  sea  birds  winter  here  in  some  numbers.  For  the 
past  two  winters  a  kingfisher  has  been  seen  along  the  river, 
and  swamp  sparrows  and  meadowlarks  are  sometimes  seen. 

The  extreme  heat  of  summer  is  tempered  here  by  the  south- 
west winds,  which  come  laden,  not  with  heat,  as  in  many  parts 
of  the  State,  but  with  the  cooling  influences  of  the  broad  Atlantic 
and  the  salt  flavor  of  the  bay.  The  soil  of  the  uplands  is  largely 


of  a  sandy  or  gravelly  nature,  with  some  clay  deposits.  Here 
and  there  rocks,  left  by  the  ancient  continental  glaciers,  lie  near 
the  surface,  either  projecting  above  the  ground  or  buried  at 
moderate  depths.  As  is  the  case  with  most  soils  of  glacial 
origin,  there  is  usually  a  greater  variety  in  the  character  of  the 
soils  of  limited  areas  (such  as  are  contained  in  the  ordinary 
farm)  than  in  soils  otherwise  formed.  One  may  readily  pass 
at  a  single  step  from  a  dry  and  sandy  soil  to  one  very  retentive 
of  water,  where  he  will  sink  into  mud  ankle  deep.  The  soil 
being  thus  varied,  the  vegetation  is,  in  consequence,  quite 
diversified.  We  have  not  only  the  pitch  pine,  scrub  oak,  pov- 
erty grass,  beach  plums  and  bearberry  of  the  stratified  sands 
of  Cape  Cod,  but  also  the  birches,  elms,  oaks,  maples,  horn- 
beams, sassafras,  white  pine  and  cedars  of  a  more  fertile  soil. 
These  and  other  trees  both  of  the  coast  region  and  the  interior 
flourish  here,  with  a  profusion  of  berries  of  native  kinds,  except 
perhaps  the  raspberry,  high  blackberry  and  wild  strawberry, 
none  of  which  is  plentiful.  There  are  very  few  nut  and  ash 
trees  or  white  oak  groves.  There  is  a  profusion  of  wild  flower- 
ing plants,  a  great  variety  of  shrubbery,  and  there  are  some 
grasses  which  are  not  found  in  the  interior. 

A  few  birds  that  are  common  on  the  rocky  hillsides  of  the 
western  part  of  the  State  are  not  common  in  Wareham  or  its 
vicinity;  but  their  absence  is  more  than  made  up  by  the  greater 
number  of  water,  shore  and  marsh  birds  found  here. 

The  tract  of  land  which  has  been  kept  under  observation 
consists  of  the  farm,  extending  from  the  highway  at  the  north 
to  the  water  way  —  the  river  —  at  the  south,  together  with  the 
lands  adjacent,  and  the  waste  lands  in  which  the  river  rises 
and  out  of  which  it  flows.  From  the  shore  of  the  river  at  the 
southern  boundary  of  the  farm  we  may  look  across  a  fine  sheet 
of  water,  where  the  three  rivers  join,  to  the  village  at  Wareham 
station.  Beneath  these  waters  oysters,  clams  and  quahaugs 
grow  naturally.  The  river  at  times  swarms  with  edible  migra- 
tory fish.  Shrimp,  crabs  and  other  aquatic  and  marine  forms 
of  life  abound. 

Such  a  variety  of  food  animals  is  sure  to  attract  water  birds. 
Down  the  river,  toward  the  bay,  gulls  or  terns,  or  both  together, 
may  be  found  according  to  the  season.  Bay  ducks  are  not 


wanting.  Loons  and  grebes  come  and  go.  The  upper  river, 
flowing  through  salt  marshes  backed  by  pine  woods,  offers 
secluded  retreats  for  eagles,  fish  hawks,  herons,  bitterns  and 
various  water  fowl  and  shore  birds.  One  large,  solitary  pine 
tree  standing  on  our  shore  has  been  used  for  at  least  two  years, 
in  the  fishing  season,  by  an  immense  bald  eagle  as  a  perch, 
from  which  he  watches  the  evolutions  of  the  fish  hawks. 

If  we  follow  the  river  above  the  head  of  tide  water  toward 
the  Plymouth  woods,  we  shall  see  another  feature  of  this  region 
which  renders  it  attractive  to  birds.  Here  lies  an  uninhabited 
country.  There  are  no  dwellings  and  no  fences.  The  only 
buildings  to  be  seen  are  the  "bog  houses,"  where  cranberries 
are  housed,  screened  and  packed  for  shipment  each  fall.  The 
land  is  undulating,  consisting  of  a  series  of  low  hills,  with 
occasionally  a  well-watered  valley.  Many  of  these  valleys  have 
been  made  into  cranberry  bogs.  There  are  many  natural  ponds 
lying  in  sheltered  basins,  and  other  artificial  ponds  which  are 
used  for  flowing  the  bogs. 

This  country  no  doubt  was  once  well  wooded.  Then  white 
pine  woods  extended  well  down  on  the  Cape,  and  oak  timber 
grew  there;  but,  for  years  past,  parts  of  this  region  have  been 
visited  by  forest  fires,  until  much  of  the  wild  land  down  through 
Sandwich,  Barnstable  and  Falmouth  has  been  burned  over. 
Large  tracts  are  now  denuded  of  trees.  On  these  tracts  scrub 
oaks,  pitch  pines  and  berry  bushes  spring  up.  When  these 
are  burned,  the  ashes  from  the  fire  supply  the  earth  with 
sufficient  potash  to  produce  a  great  crop  of  berries.  Large 
tracts  of  this  burned  land  are  covered  mainly  with  berry  bushes; 
hence  the  saying  that  "the  Cape  is  one  great  berry  pasture." 
The  low  or  dwarf  species  clothe  the  hills,  while  in  the  lower 
valleys  and  swamps  the  higher  berries  grow  to  perfection.  Here 
birds  find  an  abundance  of  fruit  during  the  summer  and  early 
fall  months.  The  swamps  furnish  them  sheltered  roosting 
places.  The  ponds  and  bogs  furnish  food  and  resting  places 
for  wild  fowl  and  marsh  birds.1  The  dead  wood  is  an  attrac- 
tion for  woodpeckers,  and  the  wood  birds  find  a  congenial 
habitat  in  those  portions  of  the  standing  timber  still  spared  by 
the  flames.  Most  of  the  country  for  miles  to  the  north  is  of 

1  Since  1902  many  of  the  swamps  have  been  made  into  cranberry  bogs. 


this  character.  To  the  west  toward  Rochester  the  land  is 
divided  into  farms,  consisting  of  cultivated  land,  grass  land 
and  woodland,  such  as  may  be  seen  generally  throughout 
eastern  Massachusetts. 

Now,  let  us  look  at  the  condition  of  the  farm  itself,  when 
acquired,  that  we  may  consider  its  unaided  capacity  for  attract- 
ing and  sustaining  a  variety  of  bird  life.  The  owner  having 
left  the  place,  it  had  been  occupied  for  some  years  by  tenants. 
This  occupation  had  not  conduced  to  its  improvement,  inas- 
much as  some  land  that  might  have  been  tilled  had  been  left 
to  the  processes  of  nature,  and  had  grown  weeds,  shrubbery 
and  young  trees.  Such  tangles,  however  much  they  interfere 
with  good  farming,  seldom  fail  to  hold  out  some  attraction  to 
birds,  and  for  this  reason  they  may  be  allowed  to  remain, 
wherever  it  can  be  done  consistently  with  the  purpose  of  the 
utilitarian. 

As  there  were  less  than  nine  acres  of  land  cleared,  it  was  in 
the  owner's  power  largely  and  immediately  to  control  the  con- 
ditions necessary  to  accommodate  a  change  or  increase  of  bird 
life,  for  trees  can  be  cut  much  quicker  than  they  can  be  grown. 
One  cannot  expect  to  have  many  species  of  useful  birds  about 
his  farmstead  unless  he  has,  or  can  provide,  in  addition  to  his 
open  or  cultivated  fields,  a  variety  of  trees  and  shrubbery. 
These  will  furnish  birds  food  and  shelter,  roosting  and  nesting 
places,  and  retreats  to  which  they  may  fly  when  pursued  by 
their  enemies  of  the  air.  Most  land  birds  prefer  the  neighbor- 
hood of  trees,  and  many  species  will  not  inhabit  a  treeless 
locality,  for  some  nest  almost  altogether  in  the  woods.  Most 
birds  prefer  a  well-watered  locality.  Water  is  furnished  to  the 
farm  and  adjacent  land  by  several  springs  and  small  streams 
flowing  to  the  river. 

The  kitchen  garden,  where  most  of  the  observations  herein- 
after recorded  were  made,  is  situated  in  the  rear  of  the  farm- 
house, and  is  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  vegetables  and  small 
fruits.  The  soil,  vegetation  and  management  of  the  land 
immediately  about  it  vary  greatly.  To  the  west  are,  first,  a 
few  orchard  trees;  next,  a  line  of  evergreens  for  a  wind-break; 
and  beyond  these  about  seventy-five  acres  of  open  fields  and 
meadows,  where  meadowlarks  and  other  native  ground-breed- 


ing  birds  resort.  The  lower  portions  of  the  meadows  nearest 
the  river  I  are  frequented  by  blackbirds.  Along  the  bushy 
borders  of  the  higher  fields  birds  of  both  upland  and  lowland 
mingle.  Here  the  quails  and  pheasants  lead  their  tender  broods, 
always  alert  to  guard  them  from  the  low-flying  marsh  hawk  or 
the  sneaking  fox. 

\fc  North  of  the  garden  the  lowland  is  grown  up  mainly  with 
birch  andjmaple,  hedged  about  with  a  thicket  of  shrubbery 
in  which  are  mingled  alders,  berry  bushes  and  fruiting  vines. 
This  tract  is  largely  covered  with  thick  undergrowth,  where 
the  treesjare  scattering.  It  is  backed  to  the  east  by  a  few  tall, 
lone  pines,  beyond  which  lies  a  high,  sandy,  open  field,  and 
then  a  small  orchard.  To  the  north  it  is  bounded  by  a  small 
cranberry  bog,  and  beyond  this  a  sandy  knoll  rises  to  the  road. 
This  low-lying  open  woodland,  with  its  rich  soil,  dense  under- 
growth and  tangle  of  vines,  furnishes  a  good  wind-break  for 
the  garden,  shutting  off  the  cold  northwest  winds.  It  also 
provides  a  sheltered,  sunny  retreat  for  birds  in  the  piercing 
cold,  but  usually  pleasant,  winter  weather  when  these  winds 
are  very  searching  on  the  open  fields.  Such  a  retreat  is  equally 
grateful  to  birds  on  cold  days  in  spring  and  fall;  and  it  forms 
an  admirable  breeding  place  for  thrushes,  robins,  vireos,  to- 
whees,  song  sparrows,  and  warblers. 

East  of  the  garden  the  ground  rises  gradually,  the  soil  chang- 
ing from  a  bluish-black  to  a  dark  brown,  then  from  brown  to 
yellow,  until,  as  we  reach  the  hilltop,  we  find  what  was  un- 
doubtedly once  a  sand  dune,  like  those  of  Cape  Cod  or  Cape 
Ann.  Here  the  only  soil  is  almost  a  pure  sand,  and  little 
grows  but  poverty  grass  and  other  primitive  plants.  Most  of 
this  rise  is  covered  with  a  rather  thin  growth  of  pitch  pines 
and  white  pines,  but  a  thick  belt  of  trees  on  the  north  gives 
additional  protection  to  the  garden  and  the  poultry  houses. 
Fowls  do  well  here,  for  the  exposure  is  sunny  and  the  soil 
sandy.  In  the  scrub  oaks  along  the  hillside,  towhees,  brown 
thrashers  and  cuckoos  thrive.  Here  the  notes  of  the  pine 
warbler,  wood  pewee  and  field  sparrow  are  heard  in  spring. 
East  of  this  wood  an  open  field  with  scattering  trees  leads  to 
a  neighbor's  house  on  the  hilltop. 

South  of  garden,  house  and  barn  lies  the  "robin  roost,"  a 


grove  of  white  pines,  about  forty-five  years  old  and  some  three 
acres  in  extent.  Here  the  robins  roost  in  numbers  in  early 
spring,  late  summer  and  early  fall,  when  they  come  in  at  dusk 
by  hundreds.  This  is  a  breeding  ground  for  jays,  robins  and 
squirrels.  Green  herons  often  roost  here.  Warblers,  kinglets, 
titmice  or  creepers  may  be  found  in  this  grove  almost  any  day 
during  the  entire  year.  For  most  of  the  season  the  grove  is 
left  to  the  birds,  except  for  a  part  of  each  summer,  when  two 
summer  cottages  within  its  confines  are  occupied.  There 
is  a  spring-fed  pool  in  this  grove,  where  water  lilies,  fish,  frogs 
and  turtles  form  a  combination  which  seems  to  attract  both 
feathered  and  unfeathered  bipeds.  This  pool  provides  a  bath- 
ing and  drinking  place  for  the  birds  of  the  grove.  Here  herons 
and  kingfishers  stop  to  fish.  Here  hawks  stoop  and  wild  fowl 
occasionally  rest.  In  1903  a  family  of  wood  ducks  often  came 
here.  South  of  the  grove  is  a  field  of  three  acres,  devoted  now 
to  the  cultivation  of  sweet  corn,  roots  and  other  vegetables. 
This  field  is  also  surrounded  by  woods  on  three  sides,  with  a 
belt  of  trees  and  shrubbery  for  a  wind-break  on  the  fourth  or 
west  side.  This  wind-break  separates  the  field  from  a  tract  of 
lowland  of  some  fifteen  or  twenty  acres,  once  mainly  salt  marsh, 
but  now,  diked  off  and  reclaimed  from  the  river,  it  forms  a 
cranberry  bog.  A  pool  of  an  acre  or  more  lies  in  the  centre 
of  the  bog.  This  was  formerly  an  arm  of  the  river  called  the 
"toad  hole,"  and  often  swarmed  with  fish.  It  is  still  a  breed- 
ing place  for  toads,  and  also  a  resort  for  herons,  bitterns  or 
shore  birds  in  their  seasons.  Swamp  sparrows,  sharp-tailed 
finches  and  rails  frequent  its  marshy  borders. 

I  have  been  thus  particular  in  describing  the  surroundings 
of  the  farm,  because  its  fitness  for  attracting  a  variety  of  birds 
seems  to  be  almost  ideal. 

In  studying  orchard  birds,  we  learned  that  orchards  sur- 
rounded in  part  by  woods  and  in  part  by  open  fields  were 
more  frequented  by  birds,  and  therefore '  better  protected 
against  injurious  insects,  than  were  those  surrounded  by  fields 
alone.  The  assumption  that  a  garden  similarly  situated  would 
also  receive  a  like  measure  of  protection  was  perhaps  war- 
ranted. On  such  an  assumption  the  selection  of  the  location 
for  a  garden  was  partially  based.  Our  first  task  was  to  attract 


10 

as  many  birds  as  possible  to  the  garden.  No  attempt  will  be 
made  now  to  give  a  list  of  the  different  species  of  birds  found 
in  the  locality.  Were  such  a  list  given  from  the  experience 
of  only  two  years,  it  would  be  merely  provisional.  Most  of  the 
birds  common  to  the  farms  of  Massachusetts  are  found  here; 
a  few  exceptions  will  be  noted  later. 

As  the  place  was  not  acquired  until  July,  1900,  all  that 
could  be  done  that  season  was  to  attract  the  fall  and  winter 
birds  to  the  farm  yard  and  garden.  When  the  frosts  came, 
suitable  food  materials,  attached  to  the  trees  and  scattered 
upon  the  ground  or  snow,  caused  a  gathering  of  the  birds  from 
far  and  near. 

The  larger  part  of  the  birds  remaining  with  us  during  the 
winter  belong  to  the  sparrow  family,  and  are  all  seed  eaters. 
Most  of  them  feed  their  young  largely  upon  insects,  but  breed 
far  to  the  north,  mainly  beyond  the  limits  of  agricultural  regions, 
so  that  during  the  breeding  season  their  value  to  man  as  insect 
eaters  is  not  great.  As  fall  approaches,  and  frosts  drive  to 
their  winter  hiding  places  the  insects  on  which  these  birds 
feed  in  spring  or  summer,  the  sparrows  begin  to  feed  on  the 
now  ripened  seeds  of  wild  grasses  and  other  plants  which 
sparrows  are  especially  fitted  by  nature  to  destroy.  At  this 
time  our  native  sparrows,  the  song  sparrow,  chipping  sparrow, 
field  sparrow  and  others,  which  have  been  feeding  largely  for 
some  time  on  the  seeds  of  weeds  and  grasses,  begin  their  south- 
ward migration,  and  the  northern  sparrows  come  in  to  take 
their  place.  The  white-throated  sparrow  is  among  the  first  to 
appear,  followed  closely  by  the  fox  sparrow,  the  junco  (or 
black  snow  bird),  and  last  of  all  the  tree  sparrow.  Still  later, 
when  heavy  snows  fall,  one  may  see  the  snowflake,  also  called 
the  snow  bunting  or  white  snow  bird,  to  distinguish  it  from 
the  black  snow  bird  or  junco.  The  fox  sparrow  lingers  awhile, 
and  follows  the  whitethroat  south;  but  the  junco  and  the  tree 
sparrow  remain  all  winter,  or  so  long  as  they  can  find  food. 
A  few  song  sparrows  also  linger  through  the  winter.  Now,  if 
you  watch  these  birds  during  the  fall  and  winter  months,  you 
will  find  them  feeding  almost  constantly  on  the  seeds  of  weeds 
and  wild  grasses.  They  visit  neglected  cornfields  and  potato 
fields,  roadsides,  gardens  and  old  fields  grown  up  to  weeds 


11 


where  they  literally  cram  themselves  with  the  seeds,  and  put 
on  fat  rapidly.'  These  birds  are  so  full  of  seeds  in  the  fall  or 
winter  that  often  if  one  is  shot,  held  up  by  the  feet  and  shaken, 
the  seeds  will  flow  from  its  mouth.  These  seeds  are  almost 
never  passed  whole  through  the  alimentary  canal  of  the  bird 
and  left  to  germinate  when  dropped  in  the  excreta;  but  they  are 
first  hulled  by  the  beak  and  then  ground  up  by  the  tough,  giz- 
zard-like stomach,  and  their  nutritious  parts  are  thoroughly 
digested. 

The  goldfinch,  which  remains  with  us  throughout  the  winter, 
is  often  seen  clinging  to  the  tops  of  the  weeds,  taking  the  seeds 
directly  from  the  plant.  More  or  less  of  this  kind  of  work  is 
done  by  redpolls,  siskins  and  crossbills.  The  tree  sparrows 
also  feed  largely  by  alighting  on  the  plants  and  pecking  off  the 
seeds.  The  juncos  and  song  sparrows  take  more  of  the  seeds 
from  the  ground  after  they  have  fallen.  These  birds  and  the 
fox  sparrows  also  scratch  away  the  fallen  leaves  or  grasses  to 
get  at  seeds  buried  beneath  them. 

Where  native  sparrows  are  numerous  in  the  fall,  winter  and 
early  spring,  they  destroy  nearly  all  the  weed  seeds  to  be  found. 
This  is  well  shown  by  Dr.  Judd,  in  his  admirable  report  on  the 
relation  of  sparrows  to  agriculture.  On  a  Maryland  farm  in 
1896  he  found  sparrows  swarming  during  the  month  of  De- 
cember. In  a  tangle  of  smartweed  the  ground  was  literally 
black  with  seeds  which  had  been  cracked  open  by  the  birds 
and  the  meat  removed.  In  a  rectangular  space  eighteen  inches 
square  were  found  1,130  such  remains  of  seeds  and  only  2  whole 
seeds.  The  birds  fed  in  the  locality  well  into  May,  and  no 
smartweed  grew  the  ensuing  year  where  the  birds  had  caused  this 
extensive  destruction.1 

Prof.  F.  E.  L.  Beal,  who  has  perhaps  made  as  extensive 
studies  of  the  food  of  birds  as  any  one  now  living,  estimates 
that  the  tree  sparrows  in  the  State  of  Iowa  eat  875  tons  of  weed 
seed  each  winter,  and  he  allows  only  10  birds  to  the  square 
mile.2 

Good  farmers  are  supposed  to  grow  no  weeds;  but  any 
one  travelling  through  Massachusetts  in  August  or  September 

1  Bulletin  No.  15,  Division  Biological  Survey,  United  States  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, p.  28. 

«  Farmers'  Bulletin  No.  54,  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  p.  28  (1897). 


12 

may  be  surprised,  perhaps,  to  see  that  most  farmers  grow 
them  abundantly.  Most  of  the  fields  where  corn,  potatoes 
and  other  crops  have  been  grown  are  so  covered  with  weeds 
at  that  season  that  in  many  places  it  is  difficult  to  see  the  crop 
from  a  distance.  No  doubt  these  rank  growths  are  a  compli- 
ment to  the  soil,  but  they  are  no  compliment  to  the  cultivation. 
The  fields  of  Massachusetts  are  not  alone  in  this  condition. 
Let  the  farmers  of  other  States  speak  for  themselves.  In  truth, 
there  are  more  weed  seeds  for  the  birds  than  birds  to  take  care 
of  them.  Where  the  hay  fields  and  meadows  are  closely  and 
often  cropped,  fewer  weeds  have  a  chance  to  mature  their 
seed;  but  even  there  some  low-growing  plants  are  left,  which 
survive  the  cutting,  and  weeds  come  in.  Where  weeds  are 
allowed  to  grow  unhindered  all  through  the  fall  months,  birds 
cannot  be  expected  to  destroy  them  all. 

In  our  garden  we  attempted  to  keep  the  weeds  in  subjection. 
This  in  1900  was  almost  an  impossibility.  In  1901  it  was  a 
serious  task,  and  necessitated  frequent  weeding  or  hoeing  all 
summer  and  into  the  fall.  In  1902  the  labor  was  much  lightened, 
and  this  was  in  part  due  to  the  birds.  All  farmers  know  that, 
while  hoed  crops  in  the  main  may  be  kept  nearly  free  from 
weeds,  it  is  impossible  to  weed  a  squash  or  melon  patch  without 
injuring  the  plants.  Such  crops  invariably  foul  the  land.  It 
is  also  very  difficult  to  keep  all  fences  and  borders  of  fields 
clear  of  weeds.  We  depended  mainly  on  the  birds  to  take  care 
of  such  weed  seeds  as  were  left  in  the  squash  or  melon  patch  or 
along  the  borders,  and  they  did  their  work  well. 

The  first  year,  birds  were  not  numerous  enough  to  destroy 
all  the  weed  seed;  the  second  year,  there  was  hardly  enough 
seed  to  gather  an  increased  number  of  birds.  A  small  patch 
of  Japanese  barnyard  grass  was  planted  north  of  the  garden. 
The  seed  of  this  millet  proved  very  attractive  to  birds,  but  it 
was  not  molested  except  by  goldfinches  and  an  occasional 
English  sparrow  until  the  seed  began  to  fall.  The  millet  was 
then  reaped  and  the  seed  saved,  but  not  until  a  great  quantity 
of  it  had  fallen  to  the  ground. 

All  the  fall  and  winter  this  seed  proved  a  great  attraction 
to  the  birds.  Sparrows  were  almost  constantly  feeding  in  the 
vicinity,  and  the  seed  seemed  to  be  relished  by  all  of  them. 


13 

There  were  probably  some  bushels  of  this  seed  on  the  ground 
in  the  fall,  but  by  spring  hardly  one  could  be  found,  and  only 
a  very  few  scattering  plants  grew  there  the  following  spring. 
This  plant  is  merely  a  cultivated  variety  of  a  common  wild 
grass  or  weed,  hence  its  attractiveness  to  birds. 

Juncos  and  tree  sparrows  came  in  greatest  numbers.  They 
not  only  destroyed  the  millet  seed,  but  they  also  found  and  ate 
practically  all  of  the  weed  seeds  remaining.  The  sparrows 
eat,  usually  with  avidity,  the  seed  of  many  of  the  worst  weeds 
known.  Dr.  Judd  mentions  the  following  weeds  which  are 
troublesome  in  fields  and  hoed  crops,  and  which  are  eaten  by 
some  twenty  species  of  sparrows:  ragweed;  several  species  of 
the  genus  Polygonum,  including  bindweed;  smartweed  and 
knotweed;  pigweed;  nutgrass  and  other  sedges;  crab-grass; 
pigeon-grass;  lamb's-quarters;  and  chickweed. 

Chickweed,  ragweed,  smartweed  and  purslane  are  among 
the  weeds  whose  seeds  have  been  freely  eaten  by  sparrows  in 
our  garden.  Purslane  is  so  tenacious  of  life  that  branches 
cut  off  by  the  hoe  and  thrown  on  the  soil  will  at  times  take 
root  and  grow  lustily.  Chickweed  is  particularly  prolific, 
because  of  its  deceptive  habit  of  blossoming  and  developing 
seed  at  the  same  time.  In  all  these  weeds  the  farmer  will 
recognize  foes  worthy  of  his  steel.  Some  of  the  sparrows  are 
also  particularly  useful  as  insect  destroyers,  as  we  shall  see 
later. 

While  speaking  of  sparrows,  lest  error  be  promulgated,  it 
should  be  definitely  stated  that  the  house  sparrow  or  English 
sparrow  cannot  be  included  in  the  list  of  birds  beneficial  to  the 
garden.  This  bird  feeds  on  grain  to  the  amount  of  more  than 
two-thirds  of  all  its  food;  is  destructive  to  peas  and  other 
garden  vegetables,  as  well  as  fruit;  and  destroys  comparatively 
few  insects.  It  eats  perhaps  less  than  half  as  many  weed  seeds 
as  any  of  our  common  native  sparrows,  and  makes  itself  gen- 
erally so  disagreeable  as  to  prevent  many  other  birds  from 
breeding  in  the  neighborhood  it  inhabits. 

Our  work,  in  conjunction  with  that  of  the  birds,  had  been 
so  efficient  in  exterminating  the  weeds  that  during  the  winter 
of  1901-02  it  frequently  was  necessary  to  scatter  chaff  and 
hayseed  from  the  barn  floor  around  the  dooryard,  to  provide 


14 

sufficient  food  for  the  birds.  In  severe  winter  weather  the 
scratching  sheds  connected  with  the  poultry  houses  always 
furnished  them  a  place  of  refuge.  These  sheds  open  toward 
the  south  (which  side  is  covered  with  poultry  netting),  but  are 
closed  on  all  other  sides.  The  ground  in  these  sheds  is  some- 
what deeply  covered  with  litter,  in  which  wheat  screenings 
and  small  grain  are  scattered,  to  give  the  hens  exercise  in 
scratching  it  out  during  the  day.  The  fowls  are  not  admitted 
to  these  sheds  very  early  on  cold  or  stormy  mornings.  Two 
sheds  having  no  curtains,  the  sparrows  invariably  occupy 
them  at  such  times,  even  if  they  do  not  remain  through  the 
night.  They  are  protected  from  hawks  and  cats  by  the  netting, 
and  they  busy  themselves  in  searching  and  scratching  among  the 
litter  for  weed  seeds  and  the  small  particles  of  grain  overlooked 
by  the  fowls. 

Here  and  in  two  open  sheds  at  the  barn  the  winter  sparrows 
can  always  find  food  and  shelter.  The  woods  and  shrubbery 
around  the  garden  offer  the  sparrows  a  refuge  to  which  they 
can  retreat  at  the  least  sign  of  danger.  This  is  an  advantage 
which  not  all  gardens  possess.  The  song  sparrow  and  the 
junco  do  not  like  to  go  far  afield,  if  they  can  secure  food,  as 
in  this  case,  near  cover.  The  snowflake,  on  the  contrary,  seems 
to  prefer  open  fields  and  pastures,  trusting  perhaps  to  its  pro- 
tective coloring  or  to  its  skill  in  flight,  for  it  rarely  stops  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  garden. 

During  the  first  winter  some  little  attention  had  been  paid  to 
methods  for  attracting  the  insect-feeding  winter  birds.  Animal 
food,  such  as  bones,  suet  and  dried  meat,  was  hung  upon  the 
fruit  trees,  and  attracted  some  attention  from  chickadees,  jays, 
nuthatches  and  woodpeckers.  These  and  the  sparrows  formed 
a  merry  company,  which  served  to  attract  other  birds,  so  that 
before  the  end  of  the  winter  most  of  the  commoner  land  birds 
found  at  that  season  frequented  the  place.  The  effects  of  their 
presence  was  noticeable  in  the  scarcity  of  injurious  insects  in 
the  spring.  The  next  problem  in  the  sequence  of  the  seasons 
was  to  induce  members  of  the  spring  flight  of  birds  to  remain 
with  us  to  breed.  To  this  end  it  became  necessary  to  increase 
the  inducements  to  nest  building,  and  offer  material  for  bird 
homes. 


15 


As  spring  opened,  the  place  was  looked  over  to  see  what 
nesting  sites  were  available  to  those  birds  that  prefer  to  breed 
in  hollow  trees.  There  were  practically  none.  The  recent 
tenant  on  the  place  had  been  allowed  to  use  for  fuel  such  dead 
wood  as  he  could  find.  He  had  availed  himself  of  his  oppor- 
tunities, until  hardly  a  dead  tree  remained.  Having  continued 
this  practice  for  the  past  two  years,  I  am  led  to  believe  that 
usually  it  is  bad  policy.  It  has  resulted  in  a  scarcity  of  the 
smaller  woodpeckers,  which  ordinarily  hold  destructive  bark 
beetles  and  other  wood-boring  insects  in  check.  As  a  probable 
effect  of  this  scarcity  of  these  useful  birds,  the  Scolytidce  and 
some  of  the  larger  borers  are  now  beginning  to  injure  the  living 
trees.  The  practice  of  cutting  out  dead  timber  also  removes 
the  breeding  places  for  wrens,  swallows,  bluebirds,  screech 
owls,  chickadees  and  other  useful  birds.  No  bluebirds,  swal- 
lows or  wrens  were  found  breeding  on  the  place.  The  screech 
owls  and  flickers  were  driven  to  take  refuge  in  the  summer 
cottages.  It  was  evident  that  an  attempt  should  be  made  to 
bring  back  such  birds  as  wrould  accept  artificial  substitutes  for 
their  natural  breeding  places  in  trees. 

Early  in  March,  1901,  a  number  of  bird  boxes  were  put  up 
on  the  trees  about  the  borders  of  the  woods.  These  were  pur- 
posely made  of  old,  weather-beaten  lumber, 
and  were  inexpensive,  four  of  the  shingles  re- 
moved when  shingling  the  barn  and  a  bottom 
and  top  piece  of  boards  completing  each  box, 
as  shown  in  Fig.  1.  Bird  boxes  put  up  in  this 
locality  should  face  to  the  south  or  west.  If 
placed  thus  and  on  the  south  or  west  side  of 
a  building  or  tree  trunk,  they  are  not  so  much 
exposed  to  the  cold  storms  which  so  often  occur 
in  early  spring;  but  they  should  be  put  in  shady 
situations.  The  hole  should  be  placed  near 
the  top,  and  for  a  wren  should  not  be  over 
seven-eighths  of  an  inch  in  diameter  (Fig.  2), 
and  the  one  and  one-half-inch  size  will  do  for 
the  bluebirds  and  tree  swallows.  The  seven-eighths-inch  hole 
will  certainly  exclude  English  sparrows  from  wren  boxes,  and, 
if  there  is  no  perch  connected  with  the  box,  it  will  be  diffi- 


FIG.  1. — Shingle 
Box. 


18 


tially  decayed  birch  stumps  by  simply  boring  a  one  and  one- 
fourth-inch  auger  hole  into  the  side  of  the  stump,  at  a  point  some 
distance  from  the  ground.  The  birds,  finding  a  hole  already 
begun,  will  finish  it  and  build  a  nest 
there,  as  they  do  sometimes  in  the  ex- 
cavations made  by  woodpeckers.  Be- 
lieving that  these  birds  might  take 
advantage  of  a  nesting  box  if  it  were 
provided  for  them,  we  first  cut  away  all 
the  dead  stumps  within  a  radius  of 
about  two  hundred  yards  of  the  house 
and  garden.  Then  food  was  put  out 
in  the  winter  on  branches  fastened  to 
the  house.  A  small  pine  tree  was 
placed  near  the  kitchen  window  and 

FIG.  3.  —  Observation  Box      1  >  . 

closed.  another  at  the   dining  room  window, 

and  these  were  hung  with  bits  of  meat,  bone  and  suet.  The 
chickadees  and  other  birds  soon  found  them,  and  came  to 
them  regularly  day  after  day  and  hour  after  hour,  continuing 
their  Christmas  festivities  all  winter  and  well  into  the  early 
spring.  A  single  bird  box  was  then  put 
up  at  a  window  in  a  loft  over  the  wood- 
shed. This  was  made  after  a  pattern  I 
began  using  thirty  years  ago,  and  may 
be  called  an  observation  box  (Fig.  3). 
As  shown  in  Fig  4,  it  is  provided  with 
a  door,  which  consists  of  a  hinged  side 
facing  the  window,  and  which  can  be 
opened  at  will  by  the  observer.  A 
pane  of  glass  is  also  inserted  in  this 
side,  so  that,  when  the  door  is  opened, 
the  eggs  or  nestlings  are  protected  by 
the  thick  glass  from  dangers  without. 
Such  a  box  must  be  so  placed  that  the 
sun  cannot  shine  into  it,  as  this  might  endanger  the  lives  of 
the  young  birds.  Before  this  time  the  English  sparrows  had 
been  all  shot,  or  driven  away  from  the  premises,  the  mice  and 
squirrels  had  been  ejected  from  the  bird  boxes,  and  the  chicka- 
dees began  to  manifest  some  curiosity  as  to  the  purpose  of  these 


FIG.  4.  —  Observation  Box 
open. 


19 


curious  habitations.  As  spring  approached,  a  chickadee  was 
seen  now  and  then  to  enter  one  of  the  boxes.  The  one  over 
the  woodshed  was  inspected  frequently,  and  it  is  believed  that 
toward  spring  one  or  more  of  the  birds  passed  the  night  in  its 
shelter. 

When  spring  opened  and  most  of  our  little  friends  retired 
to  the  woods,  one  pair  remained  behind  and  made  their  home 
in  the  observation  box.  Another  pair  set  up  housekeeping  in 
a  birch  stump  not  far  away  in  the  edge  of  the  pine  grove.  The 
pair  in  the  box,  having  abundant  nesting  material  at  hand, 
soon  began  building.  Here  was  an  excellent  opportunity  for 
watching  the  construction  of  the  nest,  but  the  box  was  not 
opened  or  disturbed,  for  fear  that  the  birds  might  forsake  it. 

All  in  the  house  were  enjoined  to  keep  away  from  the  box 
until  the  birds  were  seen  carrying  food  to  the  nest.  The  box 
was  then  opened,  and  seven  young  birds  were  found.  From 
this  time  on  the  feeding  and  growth  of  the  young  birds  were 
observed  through  the  glass.  Mr.  C.  A.  Reed,  the  editor  of 
"American  Ornithology,"  became  interested  in  this  young 
family;  and  on  June  10,  having  been  notified  that  the  birds 
were  ready  to  leave  the  nest,  he  came  with  his  camera  to  photo- 
graph them.  The  old  birds  had  now  become  so  accustomed 
to  our  presence  that  they  would  come  and  feed  the  young  while 
people  were  at  the  open  window  within  a  foot  or  two  of  the 
box.  When  sitting  at  the  window,  one  could  see  plainly  the 
insects  held  in  the  beaks  of  the  parent  birds.  Large  insects 
were  brought  singly,  smaller  ones  in  bunches  or  masses,  — 
one  might  say  almost  in  mouthfuls. 

The  old  bird  gathered  ants,  plant  lice,  spiders,  etc.,  in  its 
bill  until  that  was  well  filled,  when  it  flew  quickly  to  the  box, 
fed  the  young,  cleaned  the  nest,  and,  taking  the  excrement  in 
its  bill,  flew  away  for  more  food.  Sometimes  the  most  greedy 
youngster  got  the  whole  mouthful;  at  other  times  the  food 
was  divided  among  the  young.  The  following  notes,  taken 
at  the  nest  while  the  camera  was  in  position,  June  10,  will  show 
how  little  the  birds  were  disturbed  by  our  presence,  and  how 
often  they  came  with  food  that  forenoon.  The  box  was  opened 
and  the  camera  set  up  at  9.50  o'clock.  At  9.52,  the  female 
chickadee  came  with  a  large,  dark  caterpillar.  At  9.54,  the 


16 


FIG.  2.  —  Sparrow-proof 
Box. 


cult  for  the  sparrows  to  drive  the  wrens  away.  The  hole 
always  should  be  small  enough  to  keep  out  blue  jays,  gray 
squirrels  and  owls.  The  openings  to  the 
boxes  put  up  in  1901  were  too  large,  and, 
although  many  birds  came  to  them,  they 
were  so  annoyed  by  their  many  enemies 
that  only  one  pair  of  bluebirds  succeeded 
in  raising  a  brood,  no  other  birds  occupy- 
ing the  boxes.  Two  pairs  of  English  spar- 
rows began  operations,  but  were  not  allowed 
to  proceed. 

Nesting  materials  were  scattered  about 
and  hung  from  the  branches  of  the  trees, 
so  that  bluebirds,  wrens  and  swallows  might 
have  unlimited  material  at  hand.  This 
was  continued  in  the  spring  of  1902,  but 
only  three  broods  of  bluebirds,  two  of  which  were  raised, 
were  hatched  in  these  boxes.  No  swallows,  martins  or 
wrens  succeeded  in  occupying  any  of  the  boxes.  The  experi- 
ments in  this  direction  have  resulted  in  a  partial  failure, 
mainly  through  the  abundance  of  the  birds'  enemies.  In 
respect  to  the  chickadee,  however,  this  experiment  has  given 
results  which  will  compensate  in  a  large  measure  for  its  failure 
in  other  directions.  Studies  of  the  food  of  the  chickadee  have 
convinced  me  that  it  is  perhaps  the  most  useful  of  all  birds  in 
the  orchard,  and  as  valuable  as  any  in  the  forest  or  woodland. 
This  bird  destroys  vast  numbers  of  such  orchard  pests  as  the 
cankerworms  and  other  soft  caterpillars,  taking  also  the  hiber- 
nating forms  of  these  insects,  whether  eggs,  larvae  or  pupse,  in 
great  quantity.  It  also  destroys  the  eggs  of  the  forest  cater- 
pillar moth  and  those  of  the  common  tent  caterpillar  to  some 
extent,  killing  large  numbers  of  the  caterpillars  of  both  these 
insects,  as  well  as  those  of  the  gypsy  moth,  the  brown-tail  moth 
and  other  hairy  caterpillars.  It  is  a  great  feeder  on  the  plant 
lice,  and  the  bark  beetles  are  also  eaten  by  it.  These  insect 
families  contain  some  of  our  worst  tree  pests.  Chickadees  are 
continually  searching  over  the  bark  of  the  trunks,  limbs  and 
twigs  of  trees.  In  this  occupation  they  find  and  destroy  the 
eggs  of  moths  and  plant  lice,  the  cocoons  of  the  codling  moths, 


17 

case  bearers,  leaf  miners  and  many  injurious  minute  insects. 
They  also  open  decaying  twigs  infested  by  borers,  removing 
them  with  certainty,  though  with  less  skill  than  the  wood- 
peckers exhibit.  Nor  is  their  work  confined  wholly  to  the 
trees  and  shrubbery,  for  in  the  early  spring,  when  the  snow 
has  gone  and  the  warm  sun  begins  to  cause  the  first  stir  of  life 
among  hibernating  insects  hidden  in  the  forest  floor,  the  chick- 
adees descend  to  the  ground,  where  they  search  among  the 
leaves,  extracting  worms  from  decaying  chestnuts  or  acorns 
which  have  been  overlooked  by  jays  and  squirrels,  or  digging 
out  pupse  which  have  either  hibernated  among  the  leaves  on 
the  ground  or  fallen  with  them  from  the  trees.  Such  insect 
food  as  given  above  forms  the  main  part  of  this  bird's  suste- 
nance, nor  has  it  any  bad  habits,  so  far  as  known.  When 
driven  by  extremity,  it  may  eat  a  few  bits  from  worthless  apples 
frozen  upon  the  trees,  or  pick  up  a  few  fragments  of  corn  or 
oats  by  the  roadside  or  in  barnyard  or  poultry  yard;  but  appar- 
ently it  prefers,  in  such  cases,  the  berries  of  the  sumach,  and 
never  injures  cultivated  fruit  or  grain  of  any  value.  It  has 
none  of  the  bad  habits  of  some  of  its  European  relatives.  Its 
nesting  habits  and  its  confiding  nature  led  to  the  belief  that  it 
might  be  so  domesticated  as  to  become  as  attached  to  our 
homes,  in  time,  as  the  English  sparrow  is  to-day.  What  a  bene- 
fit might  have  been  conferred  on  our  city  parks,  had  we  induced 
these  birds  to  breed  there,  instead  of  importing  the  redoubt- 
able sparrow. 

European  titmice  breed  quite  freely  in  boxes  put  up  for 
them,  and  their  numbers  can  be  increased  readily  under  man's 
protection.  The  American  crested  titmouse  is  said  to  breed 
occasionally  about  human  habitations;  but  the  chickadee,  our 
most  common  titmouse,  has  mainly  held  aloof  from  human 
dwellings  during  the  breeding  season. 

Thirty  years  ago,  before  the  English  sparrows  became  plenti- 
ful, this  bird  bred  in  the  hollow  trunks  of  old  apple  trees  in 
orchards  or  dooryards,  and  does  so  to-day  where  the  sparrows 
have  not  obtained  a  foothold;  but  it  has  been  driven  from  such 
localities  by  the  sparrow,  returning  to  its  old  haunts  mainly  in 
the  winter,  when  sparrows  resort  much  to  the  city  or  village 
streets.  Chickadees  may  be  induced  at  times  to  build  in  par- 


20 

male  bird  came  with  a  light,  geometrid  caterpillar.  At  9.57$, 
the  male  bird  brought  two  caterpillars.  At  9.57$,  the  female 
brought  one  large,  green  caterpillar.  At  10.02,  the  male  brought 
a  pupa  about  like  the  codling  moth.  At  10.07,  the  male  brought 
a  grasshopper  with  legs  trimmed  off. 

While  the  male  was  there  the  female  came  also  with  a  bunch 
of  spiders'  eggs,  and,  following  the  male,  fed  immediately. 
We  then  removed  the  glass,  and,  reaching  out,  pushed  down 
the  side  of  the  nest  so  that  an  attempt  could  be  made  to  photo- 
graph the  young,  which  were  sunk  down  in  the  nest  quite  out  of 
sight  from  the  camera.  At  this  the  young  made  a  noise  which 
sounded  much  like  the  loud  hissing  of  a  snake,  but  proved  to 
be  an  attempt  of  all  seven  at  once  to  scold  in  chickadee  language. 

This  disturbed  the  old  birds,  who  showed  some  anxiety, 
and  did  not  feed  again  until,  at  10.14,  the  female  brought  a 
green  caterpillar;  at  10.17  a  heavy  team  went  by,  but  the, male 
came  again,  at  10.19,  with  a  large  caterpillar,  and  again  at 
10.22  with  smaller  caterpillars.  At  this  time  the  largest  and 
most  active  young  bird,  which  had  been  quite  restless  and 
several  times  had  attempted  to  reach  the  entrance  hole,  made 
a  dash,  and  flew,  at  the  first  attempt,  to  a  maple  tree  near  by; 
but  failing  to  alight  there,  it  fluttered  on  to  a  stone  heap  at  the 
foot  of  a  pine  tree  some  four  rods  away.  In  this  remarkable 
feat  it  no  doubt  was  aided  by  the  strong  breeze  then  blowing. 
This  bird  was  later  captured  and  returned  to  the  box,  but 
refused  to  remain,  and  the  second  time  flew  to  a  pine  tree 
several  rods  farther  off,  reaching  it  in  two  flights.  This  diver- 
sion somewhat  interrupted  the  regularity  of  the  feeding,  as 
the  old  birds  devoted  most  of  their  attention  to  the  young 
truant.  The  female  came  to  the  nest  once  at  10.23  with  ants, 
plant  lice  and  a  spider,  and  the  male  came  directly  afterward 
with  similar  food.  At  10.24  the  female  came  again,  and  at 
10.24$  the  male  came;  at  10.28i,  the  female;  at  10.34,  the 
male.  At  this  time  the  food,  which  came  in  large  mouthfuls, 
consisted  mainly  of  ants  and  plant  lice.  At  10.36,  as  I  leaned 
from  the  window  to  put  in  the  glass,  the  mother  bird  came 
with  her  beak  full  of  insect  food  and  alighted  at  the  entrance 
hole.  At  this  time  one  hand  held  the  glass,  while  the  other 
rested  on  the  box.  The  bird  clung  to  the  side  of  the  box,  re- 


21 

garding  me  at  first  with  some  suspicion,  but  soon  went  in  and 
fed  the  young  a  large,  green  caterpillar  which  she  had  brought. 
While  I  kept  this  position  both  birds  came  again,  the  female 
going  in  at  once  and  feeding  the  young  as  before;  but  the 
male  alighted  on  top  of  the  box,  scanning  my  face  with  his 
bright  dark  eyes  for  some  time  before  he  would  trust  himself 
to  enter.  The  young  were  evidently  fully  fledged  and  ready  to 
fly.  Two  of  them  had  flown  already  and  had  been  returned 
to  the  box.  The  parent  birds  stopped  feeding  them  and  began 
to  call.  They  were  answered  by  the  young.  At  this  moment 
the  old  birds  flew,  one  to  the  box  and  the  other  to  the  edge 
of  the  roof  overhead,  while  the  young  all  sprang  out  in  quick 
succession,  all  but  two  of  them  alighting  on  my  arms,  head 
or  shoulders,  much  to  the  delight  of  the  children,  who  were 
watching  from  below.  The  old  birds  came  to  me  and  piloted 
the  young  to  the  branches  of  a  pear  tree  near  by.  This  happy 
family  remained  about  the  vicinity  for  some  time,  and  probably 
still  forms  a  part  of  one  of  the  flocks  of  chickadees  now  in  the 
neighborhood. 

This  account  is  given  with  all  its  details  to  show  how  readily 
the  chickadee  will  accept  our  hospitality,  and  how  valuable 
an  acquisition  it  would  be  to  the  birds  which  nest  about  the 
farm  buildings.  It  is  hoped  that  others  may  be  led  to  ex- 
periment with  it  in  the  same  way.  This  family  of  chickadees 
and  a  family  of  bluebirds,  that  was  raised  in  a  box  on  the  apple 
tree  near  by,  kept  the  fruit  and  shade  trees  near  the  house  quite 
free  from  injurious  insects.  A  nest  of  the  tent  caterpillar  which 
appeared  on  the  apple  tree  where  the  bluebirds  built  their 
nest  was  rifled  of  its  contents.  Two  young  apple  trees  that 
swarmed  with  plant  lice  were  almost  entirely  cleared,  and 
suffered  no  injury  from  the  lice;  while  two  on  the  hill  beyond 
the  garden,  where  the  chickadees  did  not  go,  suffered  much 
from  these  pests,  and  finally  died.  With  eleven  hungry  nest- 
lings to  be  fed,  the  few  cankerworms  hatched  from  the  eggs 
overlooked  by  the  birds  were  soon  disposed  of. 

Now,  let  us  return  to  the  garden.  The  care  of  a  garden 
seldom  fails  to  banish  sleep  in  the  morning.  The  least  sound 
is  sufficient  to  arouse  you.  At  a  light,  intermittent  pattering 
sound  on  the  roof  you  are  awake  at  once.  It  is  only  a  gray 


22 

squirrel  running  over  the  roof.  As  you  rise  to  prepare  for  the 
duties  of  the  day,  it  is  hardly  light  enough  clearly  to  distinguish 
objects  in  the  grove.  From  the  wooded  brookside  the  sweet 
and  solemn  tones  of  the  wood  thrush  float  tremulously  to  your 
ear.  Now  a  robin  sings  boldly  from  the  top  of  a  tall  tree,  where 
he  can  see  the  promise  of  day  in  the  east;  another  takes  up  the 
refrain,  and,  by  the  time  you  have  reached  the  garden,  the  full 
bird  chorus  pours  forth  from  the  surrounding  woods.  Mingled 
with  the  refrain  you  hear  the  distant  trill  of  the  chipping  spar- 
row rising  and  falling  like  the  breath  of  a  sleeper  in  the  fields. 
The  oven-bird  awakens  the  echoes  of  the  woods  with  a  staccato 
note.  The  light,  cool  breath  of  the  morning  fans  your  cheek 
as  it  comes  up  from  dewy  meadows  laden  with  the  fragrance 
of  lilies  and  azaleas.  The  eastern  sky  is  rosy  with  the  dawn, 
and  as  you  gaze  upon  the  beauteous  scene  dark  shadows  fade 
and  fly.  Aurora  climbs  the  glowing  firmament  and  morning 
walks  abroad  upon  the  fields.  With  a  heart  filled  with  thank- 
fulness you  slowly  sink  on  bended  knee  and  go  to  killing  squash 
bugs,  —  otherwise,  you  would  get  few  squashes.  Much  as 
the  farmer  may  admire  the  beautiful  in  nature,  he  cannot  spend 
the  early  morning  hours  in  idle  contemplation. 

As  you  look  abroad  over  the  garden,  you  see  robins  hopping 
here  and  there,  searching  for  earthworms,  cutworms  and  grubs. 
Robins  find  many  earthworms  early  in  the  season,  but  later, 
as  the  soil  loses  much  of  its  moisture,  these  worms  cannot  be 
found  so  readily,  as  they  descend  to  greater  depths,  and  the 
robin  must  depend  largely  on  insect  food  for  its  own  subsis- 
tence and  nourishment  for  its  brood.  Owing  to  the  abundance 
of  the  robin  in  our  neighborhood,  it  easily  led  all  other  birds 
as  a  destroyer  of  garden  pests.  It  is  one  of  the  few  birds  that 
habitually  seek  their  food  on  the  ground  in  the  garden  early 
and  late  when  the  cutworms  are  abroad.  The  abundance  of 
robins  in  the  vicinity  may  be  accounted  for  in  part  by  their 
fondness  for  their  roost  in  the  pine  grove.  In  1901  there  were 
more  than  thirty  robins'  nests  in  trees  in  the  woods  or  fields 
near  the  house.  There  were  three  in  a  large  pine  in  front  of 
the  house,  and  three  more  over  the  door  of  a  summer  cottage 
near  by.  Although  most  of  the  eggs  or  young  in  the  nests  were 
destroyed  by  the  various  enemies  of  birds,  there  were  usually 


FIG.  5.— The  Koliin  on  IHT  \<-sl.     (ropyritflit  l.y  (  .  A.  I.Vcd.) 


23 

from  three  to  six  young  robins  about  the  garden  most  of  the 
summer,  and  in  May,  June  and  July  there  were  many  adult 
birds.  No  sooner  would  any  one  go  into  the  garden  with  plow, 
harrow,  cultivator,  hoe,  fork  or  spade,  to  stir  the  earth  for  any 
purpose,  than  the  robins  would  follow,  picking  up  grubs,  wire- 
worms,  earth  worms,  cutworms  and  ground  beetles.  There 
were  few  insects  they  would  not  eat.  They  soon  became  so 
tame  that  they  would  approach  within  a  few  feet  of  the  worker, 
and  if  grubs  or  worms  were  tossed  to  them  they  would  come 
and  pick  them  up  from  the  ground. 

White  grubs,  as  most  of  you  know,  are  the  larvae  of  May 
beetles  of  different  species,  and  destroy  the  roots  of  growing 
plants.  They  are  serious  pests  in  grass  land  or  among  hoed 
crops.  If  numerous,  they  will  soon  ruin  a  strawberry  bed  or 
a  grass  field,  and  because  of  their  habits  of  burrowing  in  the 
ground  they  are  hard  to  control.  Wireworms,  which  are  the 
larvse  of  click  beetles,  also  live  under  ground,  and  destroy 
the  roots  of  plants,  in  some  cases  burrowing  up  the  stems. 
They  are  destructive  to  turnips  and  other  root  crops,  as  well 
as  to  cabbage,  celery  and  many  vegetables,  and  must  greatly 
reduce  the  productiveness  of  grass  lands. 

Cutworms  are  larvse  of  Noctuid  moths,  and  probably  do  as 
much  injury  both  annually  and  periodically  as  any  pest  known. 
They  not  only  eat  the  foliage  of  many  plants,  but  they  cut  off 
the  stems  of  young  vegetables  close  to  the  ground,  destroying 
the  crop.  As  they  feed  mainly  at  night  and  hide  underground 
or  under  some  shelter  during  the  day,  they  are  seldom  noticed 
until  the  damage  is  done.  Ground  beetles  are  usually  classed 
as  useful  insects;  but,  as  many  of  the  species  feed  quite  largely 
on  vegetable  matter,  their  usefulness  no  doubt  depends  to 
some  extent  on  their  being  kept  within  proper  bounds.  Several 
genera  have  been  known,  where  numerous,  to  destroy  grass, 
weeds,  grain  or  fruit.  Some  of  them,  notably  of  the  genus 
Harpalus,  are  becoming  widely  known  as  destroyers  of  the 
fruit  of  the  strawberry.  Members  of  this  genus  were  found 
eating  the  seeds  of  the  Japanese  barnyard  millet  along  the 
borders  of  our  garden.  The  robin  constitutes  a  natural  check 
on  the  increase  of  these  creatures,  which,  if  held  in  their  place, 
are  no  doubt  beneficial,  but,  if  allowed  to  become  too  numerous 


24 

to  subsist  on  their  natural  food  supply,  will  destroy  cultivated 
crops. 

The  skunk  has  the  reputation  of  being  the  most  efficient 
enemy  of  the  white  grub;  but  here,  where  both  skunks  and  robins 
were  searching  for  food,  the  robin's  work  was  the  more  effective. 
The  onion  and  carrot  beds  were  regular  breeding  grounds  of 
these  grubs.  The  hand  cultivator  was  run  frequently  between 
the  rows,  and  robins  ran  after  it.  In  fact,  the  robins  cultivated 
those  rows  more  assiduously  than  did  the  cultivator.  They 
picked  up  the  insects  that  were  turned  up  by  the  cultivator; 
they  dug  conical  holes  around  the  plants,  almost  always  unearth- 
ing a  grub  at  the  bottom  of  each  hole.  This  work  they  persistently 
followed  up,  day  after  day  and  week  after  week.  So  persistent 
were  they  that  very  few  of  the  roots  were  found  injured  at 
harvest  time  by  either  grubs  or  wireworms.  Probably  some 
credit  for  this  result  must  be  given  to  the  moles,  that  occa- 
sionally burrowed  beneath  the  plants  along  whole  rows,  and 
undoubtedly  secured  some  of  these  grubs  which  the  robins 
failed  to  reach.  Throughout  the  season  the  robins  were  watched 
as  they  fed  their  young,  and  it  was  seen  that  they  habitually 
fed  grubs,  cutworms  and  many  of  the  most  injurious  cater- 
pillars. The  larvae  of  large  insects  seemed  rather  to  be  preferred, 
and  a  robin,  when  going  to  the  nest,  often  took  several  insects 
at  each  trip. 

While  spading  a  small  plot  in  the  garden  one  day,  I  watched 
a  robin  that  came  to  feed.  She  picked  up  a  large  white 
grub  that  had  just  been  turned  up  by  the  spade,  laid  it  out 
upon  the  unspaded  ground,  dug  out  another,  laid  it  beside  the 
first,  and  after  hopping  some  distance  secured  still  another 
large  one,  which  she  took  to  the  spot  where  the  first  two  still 
lay.  After  several  ineffectual  efforts,  she  succeeded  in  getting 
a  firm  hold  on  all  three,  when  she  flew  at  once  to  her  nest  near 
by,  fed  them  to  her  young  and  came  back  for  more.  The 
whole  proceeding  did  not  occupy  five  minutes.  These  grubs 
were  dug  out  by  the  robins  wherever  they  could  be  found.  They 
took  them  from  compost  heaps,  from  beneath  the  mulch  about 
the  fruit  trees,  and  seemed  to  know,  as  if  by  instinct,  just  where 
to  find  them.  It  should  not  be  inferred,  however,  that  they 
found  these  grubs  by  instinct.  Their  skill  in  finding  them  was 


25 


acquired,  and  no  doubt  was  entirely  a  matter  of  early  education 
and  experience,  except  in  so  far  as  their  keen  faculties  of  observa- 
tion were  transmitted  to  them  by  their  parents.  The  young 
robins,  when  they  first  left  the  nest,  were  nearly  helpless  so  far 
as  finding  food  was  concerned,  and  it  was  some  weeks  before 
they  had  learned  to  find  grubs  with  certainty.  At  first  they 
were  fed  almost  entirely  by  the  parents;  later,  they  learned  to 
pick  up  objects  from  the  ground  and  to  pursue  crawling  insects; 
but  they  did  not  acquire,  during  their  first  summer,  the  skill 
evinced  by  their  parents  in  digging  out  grubs.  An  adult  bird, 
when  once  it  began  to  dig,  seldom  missed  the  worm  or  grub. 
The  young  birds  frequently  failed  to  secure  their  prey,  and  were 
fed  more  or  less  by  the  old  birds  for  some  weeks  after  leaving 
the  nest. 

The  first  season  (1901)  we  set  out  a  few  rows  of  strawberry 
plants  of  different  varieties.  Perhaps  it  is  needless  to  add  that 
the  robins  got  nearly  all  the  fruit.  This  created,  as  it  usually 
does,  a  rather  unreasonable  prejudice  against  the  birds.  In  this 
the  whole  family  shared;  but,  had  the  robins  been  killed  then, 
there  is  little  doubt  that  our  strawberry  beds  would  have  been 
ruined  in  1902.  A  close  watch  was  kept  on  the  robins  in  the 
strawberry  bed  in  1901,  and  they  were  seen  to  devour,  on  the 
average,  five  insects  to  each  strawberry.  These  insects  were 
nearly  all  such  as  were  injurious  to  strawberry  plants,  and  were 
taken  either  from  the  plants  they  were  feeding  on  or  from  the 
ground  beneath.  When  in  1902  the  number  of  strawberry  rows 
was  much  increased,  the  injury  done  by  robins  to  the  fruit  was 
proportionately  very  small;  and  a  new  bed,  planted  on  the 
ground  originally  swarming  with  white  grubs,  did  very  well. 
The  robins  so  nearly  exterminated  the  grubs  that  but  few  plants 
were  lost. 

The  robins  occasionally  took  a  raspberry  or  currant.  They 
also  took  insects  from  the  currant  bushes  (presumably  currant 
worms).  Their  heaviest  toll  of  fruit  was  taken  from  the  cherry 
trees.  In  some  localities  their  attacks  on  the  cherries  have  been 
prevented  by  growing  the  Russian  mulberry,  —  a  fruit  they 
often  prefer  to  the  cherry;  but  this  is  not  always  a  certain 
remedy,  and  it  is  safer  to  plant  cherry  trees  enough  to  supply 
both  the  birds  and  the  family.  Much  space  is  given  here  to 


26 

the  robin,  because  with  us  it  has  proved  to  be  the  most  useful 
bird  in  the  garden.  The  food  of  the  robin  has  been  studied, 
within  the  past  fifty  years,  by  many  investigators.  Their  con- 
clusions, however,  have  not  always  agreed. 

Prof.  J.  W.  P.  Jenks,  Mr.  E.  A.  Samuels,  Prof.  S.  A.  Forbes, 
Mr.  F.  H.  King,  Prof.  F.  E.  L.  Beal  and  some  others,  while 
varying  in  their  estimates  of  the  robin's  value,  all  regard  it  as 
a  useful  bird;  but  the  investigations  of  Mr.  E.  V.  Wilcox  and 
Prof.  F.  S.  Webster,  published  in  Bulletin  No.  43  of  the  Ohio 
Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  present  results  rather  unfa- 
vorable to  the  robin.  It  is  not  my  intention  here  to  take  issue 
with  these  gentlemen  as  to  the  facts  stated  in  their  writings  on 
this  subject.  I  wish  merely  to  call  attention  to  some  errors  into 
which  investigators  who  are  not  familiar  with  birds'  habits  are 
likely  to  fall,  and  also  to  show  wherein  the  observations  of  Mr. 
Wilcox  do  not  agree  with  my  own. 

He  has  stated  to  me  in  conversation  that  most  of  the  robins 
whose  stomachs  were  examined  were  shot  while  feeding  on  the 
grounds  of  the  experiment  station,  and  mainly  during  the  busy 
hours  of  the  day.  Few  birds  were  shot  very  early  in  the  morn- 
ing or  towards  dusk.  Now,  the  robin  is  very  active  at  such 
times,  and  it  is  then  that  it  has  the  best  opportunity  to  secure 
the  cutworms,  the  percentage  of  which  in  the  stomachs  of  those 
examined  by  Mr.  Wilcox  is  probably  too  small.  All  vestiges 
of  cutworms  eaten  by  the  robin  at  3  to  4  A.M.  will  probably 
have  disappeared  from  the  stomach  at  6,  by  reason  of  the  bird's 
rapid  digestion.  Most  of  the  robins  were  shot  on  the  station 
grounds  at  a  time  when  they  were  feeding  largely  on  the  small 
fruits  grown  there  in  profusion.  Naturally,  a  larger  proportion 
of  cultivated  fruit  was  found  in  the  stomachs  than  would  have 
been  the  case  had  a  larger  number  of  the  birds  examined  been 
shot  in  other  localities  and  at  other  times.  This  seems  hardly 
fair  to  the  species.  No  stomachs  of  nestling  robins  were  exam- 
ined. This  seems  a  capital  omission.  In  our  investigations 
nestlings  have  appeared  to  require  a  very  large  proportion  of 
insect  food,  and  as  they  increase  in  size  they  require  more  food 
than  the  old  birds.  A  young  robin  has  been  known  to  eat 
forty-one  per  cent  more  than  its  own  weight  each  day. 

Mr.  WTilcox  failed  to  find  any  grubs  in  the  stomachs  of  robins 


27 


shot  on  ground  recently  plowed,  and  he  accounts  for  this  by 
the  statement  that  the  robin  does  not  follow  the  plow  as  closely  as 
does  the  crow  blackbird,  and  that  the  grubs  soon  bury  themselves 
in  the  soil,  "hence  the  failure  of  the  robin  to  find  any."  This 
is  entirely  contrary  to  our  experience  here.  We  have  found  the 
robin  to  be  a  much  more  effective  destroyer  of  the  white  grub 
than  the  cro\v  blackbird,  which  will  wait  for  the  robin  to  find 
and  dig  up  grubs,  and  then  quickly  snatch  them  away  from  its 
beak.  If  we  were  to  rely  on  stomach  examinations  only,  the 
blackbird  might  get  more  credit  for  finding  grubs  in  the  ground 
than  he  deserves.  Our  experience  in  Massachusetts  is  corrobo- 
rated by  that  of  Dr.  Roberts  of  Minneapolis,  who  finds  the 
robins  there  much  more  expert  in  digging  out  grubs  from  lawns 
than  is  the  crow  blackbird. 

Mr.  Wilcox  says  that  he  has  never  seen  the  robin  searching  for 
insect  food  except  upon  the  ground.     In  Massachusetts,  how- 


FIG.  6.  —  Robin  with  White  Grub  for  her  Young. 

ever,  the  robin  occasionally  takes  caterpillars  from  the  trees. 
It  is  quite  probable  that  twenty  observers  scattered  over  the 
county  in  which  Mr.  Wilcox  made  this  investigation  would  have 
made  more  or  less  contradictory  reports.  It  is  unsafe  to  gen- 
eralize too  much  from  observations  made  by  one  man  in  a  single 


28 

locality.  My  observations  on  the  robin  are  offered  with  the 
belief  that  the  statements  made  are  correct  so  far  .as  my  own 
garden  is  concerned.  A  small  fruit  grower  differently  situated 
might  consider  the  robin  an  enemy.  The  picture  of  the  robin 
at  the  nest  with  a  grub  in  her  bill  shows  the  eagerness  with 
which  the  young  robins  anticipate  the  coming  of  their  food 
(Fig.  6). 

Next  to  the  robin  in  usefulness  in  our  garden  comes  the  chip- 
ping sparrow.  This  little  bird,  which  often  hops  about  the 
dooryard  of  the  farmhouse,  picking  up  crumbs  that  fall  from 
the  doorway,  spends  much  of  its  time  in  the  garden.  With  us 
it  did  no  noticeable  harm,  feeding  much  on  insects  in  the 
spring  and  summer,  and  largely  on  weed  seeds  in  the  fall.  It 
was  almost  constantly  busy  along  the  vegetable  rows  in  early 
summer.  It  was  especially  devoted  to  the  green  peas  and  the 
beets.  Beets  are  usually  more  or  less  infested  with  a  larva 
which  mines  the  leaf,  in  some  cases  destroying  many  leaves. 
This  insect  is  not  usually  a  serious  pest,  as  some  enemy  appears 
to  check  its  undue  increase.  Early  in  the  season  the  beets 
were  attacked  by  it  and  were  quite  seriously  infested,  but  as 
time  went  on  the  number  of  worms  grew  less  and  less.  It  was 
noticed  that  this  scarcity  of  the  beet  worms  was  coincident  with 
the  appearance  of  the  chipping  sparrows  among  the  plants,  and 
that  the  longer  the  birds  worked  there  the  fewer  beet  worms 
could  be  found.  These  sparrows  were  commonly  to  be  seen 
going  up  and  down  the  rows,  feeding  among  the  plants  in  the 
garden  where  table  beets  were  grown.  Other  birds  of  this 
species  were  also  observed  in  the  field  among  the  stock  beets 
or  mangel  wurtzels.  I  was  enabled  one  day,  by  creeping  along 
the  ground  between  the  rows,  to  get  very  close  to  a  chipping 
sparrow  which  was  feeding  there.  It  was  passing  among  the 
plants  searching  somewhat  among  the  stems,  from  which  it 
took  small  insects,  but  mainly  getting  its  food  from  the  infested 
leaves.  By  moving  very  cautiously,  I  was  able  to  follow  it  for  a 
hundred  yards  along  the  rows.  It  could  be  plainly  seen  taking 
something  from  the  leaves.  It  touched  none  but  the  infested 
leaves.  In  each  case  when  the  bird  had  passed,  the  leaf  was 
freshly  punctured,  and  the  worm  was  missing.  The  little  bird 
found  it  necessary  in  many  cases  to  use  its  wings  to  reach  the 


29 


worm,  but  never  failed  to  get  it.  Apparently  eleven  of  these 
worms  were  secured  in  a  few  minutes,  and  several  other  small 
insects  were  taken.  Having  watched  these  birds  through  one 
long  summer,  I  have  little  doubt  that  their  presence  saved  the 
beet  crop  from  a  serious  reduction. 
The  imported  destructive  pea  louse  was  very  prevalent  in 

1900,  and  we  were  prepared  for  its  appearance  in  the  spring  of 

1901.  The  lice  appeared  as  expected,  but  failed  to  increase  as 
heretofore.     One  morning  one  of  the  boys  at  work  in  the  garden 
reported  that  chipping  sparrows  were  eating  the  pea  lice.     This 
proved  true,  for  all  through  the  season  and  also  the  next  season 
wherever  peas  were  planted  these  birds  appeared  and  fed  on 
these  plant  lice  persistently,  day  after  day,  so  long  as  they  could 
be  found.     A  row  of  late  peas  about  one  hundred  yards  in 
length  became  infested  in  August.     These  peas  were  one-eighth 
of  a  mile  from  where  the  early  peas  were  planted,  and  in  a 
locality  not  ordinarily  frequented -by  the  chipping  sparrow;  but 
the  birds  soon  found  them,  and  haunted  the  vines  day  after  day, 
until,  the  lice  were  so  reduced  in  numbers  that  they  did  no  fur- 
ther injury.     It  seems  probable  that  this  habit  of  the  "chippy" 
is  widespread,  for  Mr.  H.  W.  Olds  and  Dr.  Judd  have  both 
observed  it.1 

These  birds  apparently  rendered  it  unnecessary  for  us  to 
protect  our  peas  from  these  destructive  aphides.  How  gener- 
ally they  may  have  effected  such  a  result  elsewhere  I  have  no 
means  of  knowing.  It  is  quite  probable  that  they  have  borne 
a  prominent  part  in  reducing  the  pea  louse  from  a  pest  of  the 
first  class  to  its  present  status.  These  birds  fed  on  the  eggs  of 
the  parsley  butterfly,  taking  most  of  them  from  the  leaves  of  the 
celery  or  parsnip  plants,  where  they  are  deposited  by  the  insect, 
usually  one  in  a  place.  The  chipping  sparrow  also  feeds  on  the 
young  larvae.  The  attentions  of  the  "chip  birds"  are  not  by 
any  means  confined  to  the  garden.  They  are  very  useful  in 
the  orchard,  particularly  in  the  destruction  of  caterpillars,  upon 
which  their  young  are  largely  fed.  They  also  feed  in  the 
borders  of  woodlands,  along  the  roadsides  and  in  the  open 
fields.  As  these  birds  often  raise  two  broods  each  season,  and 

1  Bulletin  No.  15,  Division  of  Biological  Survey,  United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, p.  77. 


30 

their  young  are  nourished  almost  entirely  on  insects,  their  great 
value  to  the  farmer  is  unquestioned.  In  the  illustration  from 
Mr.  Reed's  photographs  the  parents  are  seen  with  their  callow 
brood  (Fig.  7).  In  the  lower  picture,  the  female,  having  brought 
a  caterpillar  too  large  to  be  fed  whole,  joins  with  the  male  in 
dividing  it. 

The  song  sparrow  is  another  bird  which  has  done  excellent 
service  in  the  garden.  A  pair  of  these  birds  nested  near  a  ditch 
at  the  north  side  of  the  garden  in  1901,  where  they  confined 
their  attentions  principally  to  the  early  cabbage  patch.  Both 
cabbages  and  cauliflowers  made  a  rank  growth,  and  by  June 
had  so  covered  the  ground  that  these  creeping  ground  sparrows 
could  readily  pass  beneath  them  unobserved.  Their  habits  in 
this  respect  are  such  as  to  completely  baffle  the  ordinary  ob- 
server. Finally,  after  much  watching,  they  were  seen  to  eat 
the  cabbage  plant  louse  and  some  of  the  cabbage  worms.  This 
pair  of  birds  could  be  found  among  the  cabbages  at  almost  any 
hour  of  the  day.  They  sought  their  food  there  almost  continu- 
ally, and  they  made  great  havoc  with  the  cabbage  insects;  but, 
as  there  were  five  different  caterpillars  on  the  cabbages,  and  the 
birds  took  much  of  their  food  when  concealed  from  view  or  at  a 
distance  from  the  observer,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  say  more 
than  that  probably  all  species  were  eaten. 

All  the  cabbage  insects  were  so  reduced  in  number  that 
little  injury  was  done  to  the  heads.  No  insecticides  were 
used  upon  the  cabbages  or  cauliflowers,  though  a  few  worms 
were  killed  by  hand  at  first.  They  were  afterward  left  to  the 
sparrows.  The  chipping  sparrows  also  took  worms  from  the 
cabbages.  The  song  sparrows  eat  most  caterpillars  if  they 
are  found  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  their  nests.  With  us 
they  do  not  go  far  afield  when  they  can  find  sufficient  food 
near  at  hand.  They  seldom  went  beyond  the  cabbage  patch, 
flying  from  that  to  the  thicket  about  their  home.  They  feed 
mainly  on  or  near  the  ground,  and  for  this  reason,  perhaps, 
they  search  out  and  destroy  many  cutworms.  They  were  not 
seen  to  take  any  fruit  from  the  garden,  although  they  have  been 
known  to  eat  strawberries,  blackberries  and  raspberries.  This 
was  the  only  pair  of  these  birds  nesting  about  the  garden  in 
in  1901.  Their  young  were  destroyed,  probably  by  a  cat,  and 


FIG.  7.  — Chipping  Sparrows  feeding  their  Young.    (Copyright  by  C.  A.  Reed.) 


31 


possibly  the  old  birds  suffered  the  same  fate,  as  no  song  sparrows 
nested  there  in  1902. 

Among  the  birds  which  frequented  the  garden  were  the 
catbird  and  the  goldfinch;  but,  so  far  as  could  be  seen,  these 
birds  contributed  little  to  its  welfare.  The  goldfinches  attacked 
the  millet  in  the  field,  the  sunflowers  along  the  garden  border, 
and  ate  pieces  from  the  leaves  of  lettuce  and  other  tender 
vegetables.  They  were  not  seen  to  eat  insects,  but  they  are 
useful  as  destroyers  of  plant  lice,  caterpillars  and  other  tree- 
feeding  insects.  They  destroy  weevils  also;  but,  so  far  as  could 
be  observed,  they  were  slightly  detrimental  to  the  garden.  The 
catbird  was  never  seen  to  enter  the  garden  except  as  it  went  to 
the  strawberry  bed  after  the  berries  were  ripe.  Apparently 
the  catbirds  went  to  the  garden  for  strawberries  alone.  They 
were  never  seen  to  eat  anything  else  while  there,  and,  as  they 
were  about  the  strawberry  bed  much  of  the  time  while  the 
berries  were  ripe,  they  must  have  eaten  as  many  berries  as 
all  the  robins,  for  the  robins  only  took  strawberries  occasionally. 
A  pan  of  water  was  set  out  near  the  strawberry  bed,  that  the 
catbirds  might  have  an  opportunity  to  allay  their  thirst  before 
reaching  the  berries.  They  took  no  notice  of  this,  as  they 
evidently  preferred  strawberry  juice.  If  driven  away,  they 
would  return  immediately.  They  remained  about  the  bed 
until  the  berries  had  been  picked,  when  they  left  at  once,  and 
hardly  visited  the  garden  at  all  for  the  rest  of  the  summer. 
Were  we  to  judge  the  catbird  by  this  experience  alone,  we  must 
agree  with  those  who  consider  it  a  pest.  Many  people  have 
had  somewhat  similar  experience  with  it.  My  experience 
with  it  in  Worcester,  however,  was  somewhat  of  a  contrast 
to  this  more  recent  acquaintance.  There  we  raised  straw- 
berries with  little  trouble  from  the  catbirds  that  nested  near 
the  garden,  and  were  of  considerable  service  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  insect  pests,  notably  the  white  grub.  This  bird,  how- 
ever, is  probably  of  much  less  service  to  the  farmer  than  many 
others,  and  is  not  to  be  compared  with  the  robin  as  a  destroyer 
of  garden  insects. 

The  vireos,  redstarts  and  warblers,  which  bred  in  the  woods 
around  the  garden,  occasionally  came  inside  its  limits,  but 
confined  their  attention  mainly  to  the  insects  on  the  fruit  trees, 


32 

so  that,  so  far  as  could  be  seen,  their  presence  in  the  garden 
had  little  or  no  effect  on  the  vegetables.  These  birds  were 
much  of  the  time  engaged  in  killing  caterpillars  of  many  species. 
They  were  so  assiduous  in  this  that  no  serious  injury  was  done 
by  caterpillars  to  any  of  the  trees  near  by.  Even  the  wild 
cherry  trees,  which  are  ordinarily  stripped  by  the  tent  cater- 
pillar, were  left  intact.  The  vireos  are  probably  among  the 
most  efficient  caterpillar  hunters.  The  illustration  showing 
the  red-eyed  vireo  feeding  her  young  (Fig.  8)  is  introduced 
here  to  show  how  the  parent  bird  inserts  her  bill  into  the  throat 
of  the  newly  hatched  young,  and  thrusts  the  food  down  into 
the  gullet.  This  may  be  a  necessary  precaution  some  days 
later,  for  the  living  caterpillars  then  fed  sometimes  crawl  out 
of  the  mouths  of  the  young  birds,  and  escape. 

Blackbirds,  brown  thrushes  and  towhees  kept  well  away 
from  the  house  the  first  season.  Dogs,  cats  and  boys  evidently 
had  made  them  distrustful  of  the  neighborhood.  A  little  grain 
scattered  about,  in  the  spring  of  1902,  brought  several  black- 
birds and  a  pair  of  brown  thrashers.  The  blackbirds  soon 
became  quite  tame,  and  remained  about  the  place  until,  late  in 
May,  they  retired  to  the  meadow  to  breed.  The  brown  thrashers 
came  to  the  dooryard  all  summer,  in  search  of  crumbs  and 
fragments  of  grain,  and  finally  became  quite  tame.  Neither 
these  birds  nor  the  towhees  seemed  to  be  attracted  to  the  garden, 
although  the  towhees  came  into  it  much  during  the  late  summer. 
These  birds  are  all  useful  in  the  garden,  provided  they  can  be 
induced  to  frequent  it.  None  of  them  injured  anything  in  it, 
except  that  the  towhees  picked  up  a  few  ripe  gooseberries. 
Some  of  the  birds  which  are  known  to  be  conspicuously  useful 
in  the  garden  did  not  stay  with  us,  although  they  were  occa- 
sionally heard  singing  in  the  early  spring. 

Those  who  have  followed  me  thus  far  may  begin  to  sur- 
mise that  for  some  reason  birds  were  not  exceptionally  numer- 
ous in  this  locality,  so  well  fitted  for  their  homes;  such  indeed 
is  the  case,  and  the  reason  is  not  far  to  seek.  Birds  have  been 
protected  here  to  some  extent  for  years,  so  far  as  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  gunner  are  concerned,  but  their  natural  enemies 
have  greatly  increased  in  the  mean  time.  All  the  swallows 
and  most  of  the  bluebirds  have  been  driven  away  from  the 


FIG.  8.  — Red-eyed  Tireo  feeding  Young.     (Copyright  by  C.  A.  Reed.) 


33 

neighborhood  by  the  English  sparrow.  Most  of  the  smaller 
birds  which  had  survived  the  attacks  of  their  various  enemies 
failed  to  breed,  for  either  the  eggs  or  young  were  destroyed. 
No  doubt  this  state  of  things  ought  sooner  to  have  been  rem- 
edied; but  I  desired  first  to  study  the  influences  which  di- 
minished the  numbers  of  these  useful  creatures,  so  as  to  be  quite 
certain  what  means  to  take  for  their  protection. 

My  experience  here  during  these  two  years,  taken  in 
conjunction  with  the  experience  of  the  previous  twenty-five 
years,  leads  me  to  believe  that  the  enemies  of  birds  stand  about 
in  the  following  order,  as  regards  their  importance:  cats, 
English  sparrows,  gunners  and  boys,  crows,  jays,  hawks, 
squirrels,  snakes,  skunks,  foxes,  weasels  and  other  small  mam- 
mals. Owls,  shrikes,  and  some  other  birds  may  be  named  also 
as  of  varying  importance  according  to  circumstances.  Dogs 
eat  eggs  and  kill  some  nestlings.  In  this  classification  of  birds' 
enemies  I  refer  mainly  to  conditions  prevailing  in  eastern 
Massachusetts,  which  is  a  thickly  settled  region;  in  a  less 
thickly  settled  or  more  open  country,  a  change  in  the  relative 
positions  of  birds'  enemies  might  more  nearly  approximate 
the  facts. 

Properly  speaking,  man  is  the  greatest  enemy  of  the  birds. 
Cats,  dogs  and  English  sparrows  have  been  both  introduced 
and  fostered  by  him.  Birds  are  killed  by  him  for  ornamental 
purposes  and  for  sport,  instead  of  being  given  that  consideration 
and  protection  which  is  their  due,  and  which  man  can  readily 
afford  them.  Cats  are  named  first  as  bird  enemies,  because 
they  are  exceedingly  numerous  in  the  vicinity  of  cities,  towns 
and  villages,  and  because  an  adult  cat,  in  good  hunting  grounds, 
will  probably  destroy  about  fifty  birds  each  season.  I  have 
known  a  single  cat  to  kill  all  the  nestlings  in  six  nests  in  one 
day,  with  two  of  the  old  birds  struck  down  while  trying  to 
defend  their  young. 

No  doubt  this  is  exceptional;  but  few  nests  are  secure  from 
these  cruel  marauders,  except  those  which  are  inaccessible, 
like  many  of  the  nests  of  the  Baltimore  oriole.  Most  farmers 
keep  too  many  cats.  The  country  is  infested  with  vagrant 
cats.  Hounds  often  "tree"  them  in  the  woods  far  from  any 
house,  and  their  tracks  may  be  seen  in  every  newly  fallen 


34 

snow.  Cats  are  turned  out  by  people  who  wish  to  get  rid  of 
them.  Many  are  abandoned  by  city  people  when  going  back 
to  town  from  their  summer  homes.  Some  may  take  to  the 
woods  from  choice.  All  this  is  bad  for  the  birds.  Many  such 
cats  inhabit  the  woods  and  thickets  about  Wareham,  living  on 
birds,  mice,  squirrels  and  insects;  haunting  back  yards,  poultry 
coops  and  barns;  stealing  any  food  that  may  be  left  in  exposed 
situations;  making  the  raising  of  chickens  a  precarious  busi- 
ness; and  even  killing  rabbits,  pheasants,  partridges  and  half- 
grown  fowls.  Such  cats  are  largely  responsible  for  the  fact 
that  many  of  the  ground-breeding  and  bush-inhabiting  birds 
in  our  neighborhood  have  been  killed  or  driven  away.  Care- 
ful investigation  will  show  a  somewhat  similar  condition  in 
many  neighborhoods.  For  this  there  is  only  one  remedy,— 
these  cats  must  be  exterminated. 

Twenty  years  ago  the  English  sparrow  would  have  been 
placed  first  on  the  list,  but  it  is  not  now  so  serious  a  menace 
to  our  native  birds  as  then.  The  conditions  for  its  increase 
are  not  generally  so  favorable  as  they  then  were,  and  its  ene- 
mies are  more  in  the  ascendant.  It  should  not  be  tolerated, 
however,  by  any  one  living  in  the  country  who  prefers  the 
presence  of  our  many  beautiful  and  far  more  useful  native 
species.  If  its  presence  is  allowed,  it  is  likely  to  drive  out  all 
those  native  birds  that  nest  in  or  about  buildings  or  in  bird 
houses.  It  also  annoys  many  other  birds,  and  drives  them 
from  the  neighborhood  of  our  homes.  I  have  now  driven  it 
out  of  this  neighborhood,  but  its  former  presence  accounts 
for  the  absence  of  wrens,  bluebirds,  phoebes  and  swallows, 
which  no  doubt  once  bred  here,  and  may  now  be  induced  to 
return.  The  sparrows  —  according  to  the  testimony  of  many 
observers  —  do  not  kill  the  native  birds  and  their  young  to  the 
extent  that  they  did  some  years  ago;  but  they  often  destroy 
the  nests  of  other  birds,  and  they  still  persist  in  following  or 
mobbing  birds  of  other  species,  and  compelling  them  to  move 
on.  If  their  nests  are  destroyed  and  the  birds  shot  whenever 
occasion  offers,  the  survivors  usually  learn  to  keep  away. 

In  speaking  of  the  gunner  as  an  enemy  of  birds,  it  may  be 
well  to  except  the  honest  sportsman,  who  complies  with  the 
law,  respects  the  rights  of  property,  and  is  intelligent  enough 


35 

to  know  that  it  is  for  his  own  interest  to  protect  all  birds  from 
undue  or  illegal  slaughter.  We  may  except  also  the  scientific 
ornithologist,  who  kills  birds  only  when  necessary  to  further 
the  interests  of  science.  In  the  present  state  of  ornithological 
science,  there  are  very  few  men  who  should  find  it  necessary 
to  kill  many  birds  for  this  purpose.  It  is  the  irresponsible 
gunner  —  boy  or  man,  who  shoots,  in  season  or  out,  anything 
which  comes  within  the  range  of  his  gun,  from  a  hen  to  a  chick- 
adee, for  sport  or  practice,  as  the  case  may  be  —  who  should 
be  suppressed.  The  trolley  cars,  which  flood  the  country, 
especially  on  Sundays  and  other  holidays,  with  gunners  and 
fishermen  from  the  cities,  have  increased  the  danger  to  the 
birds  from  this  class  of  people.  A  large  proportion  of  these 
people  are  foreigners,  or  of  foreign  extraction.  Since  the 
trolley  roads  came  into  Wareham,  we  have  had  occasion  to 
warn  many  of  these  people  away  from  the  premises.  Usually 
when  spoken  to  they  have  replied  in  broken  English.  Many 
of  these  foreigners  shoot  and  trap  song  birds  to  eat.  The 
natural  destructive  propensities  of  our  own  children  may 
readily  be  controlled  by  education,  by  teaching  them  to  take 
an  interest  in  birds,  their  songs  and  habits,  and  by  showing 
them  their  usefulness. 

Having  done  what  we  could  to  protect  the  birds  about  the 
farm  from  cats,  dogs,  gunners,  English  sparrows  and  boys, 
we  are  still  confronted  with  the  undeniable  fact  that  most 
species  of  birds  about  the  place  are  not  increasing  in  numbers, 
while  some  of  them  are  decreasing.  Some  fail  to  breed  at  all, 
while  some  are  entirely  absent  in  the  breeding  season.  The 
explanation  of  this  lies  largely  in  the  fact  that  under  protection 
the  jays  increased  mainly  the  first  year,  while  the  crows  are 
increasing  regularly,  and  frequenting  the  place  more  and 
more.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that,  where  all  birds  are  protected 
by  man,  birds  are  the  greatest  enemies  of  birds.  I  have  previously 
reported1  that  in  the  Middlesex  Fells  reservation  near  Boston 
the  crows  appeared  to  have  increased  at  the  expense  of  the 
smaller  birds.  This  region  came  under  my  observation  in 
1891,  when  the  committee  in  charge  of  the  gypsy  moth  work 
was  first  appointed.  From  that  time  until  1900  several  observers 

1  Agriculture  of  Massachusetts,  1900,  p.  50. 


36 

who  were  well  acquainted  with  the  birds  of  the  region  passed 
much  of  their  time  in  these  Fells.  In  1891  the  land  was  owned 
mainly  by  individuals,  and  was  a  great  resort  for  gunners. 
Hares  and  grouse  were  rare.  Crows  and  jays  were  not  exceed- 
ingly common,  and  the  smaller  land  birds  were  found  in  such 
numbers  as  are  usual  about  our  cities.  Within  two  years  after 
the  Metropolitan  Park  Commission  took  the  land,  and  stopped 
gunning,  trapping  and  snaring  by  a  remarkably  efficient  sys- 
tem of  police  protection,  hares,  grouse,  jays  and  crows  became 
much  more  numerous,  but  many  of  the  smaller  birds  which 
breed  in  the  Fells  decreased  somewhat  in  numbers.  Our  ob- 
servers found  that  the  eggs  and  young  of  these  birds  were  being 
destroyed  mainly  by  crows  and  jays,  which  were  often  seen 
during  the  breeding  season  searching  the  woods  for  them 
and  destroying  them. 

Most  farmers  know  the  bird-nesting  habits  of  the  crow,  — 
how  it  sneaks  about  the  house  and  orchard  in  the  early  morning 
hours,  stealing  eggs  and  nestlings  from  the  nests  of  robins  and 
other  small  birds.  Similar  habits  of  the  jays  are  also  notorious. 
Still,  it  is  not  so  very  often  that  these  birds  are  actually  seen 
in  the  act  of  eating  the  eggs  of  small  birds.  Crows  may  com- 
monly be  seen  to  destroy  the  eggs  of  herons  or  sea  birds,  when 
these  birds  are  frightened  from  their  breeding  places  by  the 
approach  of  men.  In  their  eagerness  to  secure  the  eggs  or 
young  before  the  return  of  the  parents,  crows  sometimes  become 
quite  daring.  This  trait  of  their  character  I  have  observed  often 
when  in  heronries  or  on  the  rocky  islands  of  the  coast,  where 
sea  birds  breed;  but  it  is  far  more  difficult  to  catch  them  in 
the  act  of  robbing  the  nests  of  small  birds,  which  are  scattered 
singly  in  woods,  groves,  orchards  and  undergrowth,  where  the 
crow  or  jay  can  readily  keep  in  hiding  behind  the  foliage. 

When  we  first  occupied  the  farm  in  Wareham,  two  pairs<  of 
jays  were  breeding  in  the  "robin  roost,"  but  no  crows  bred  in 
the  woods  about  the  place.  Both  crows  and  jays  were  very 
shy.  Crows  seldom  came  into  the  "robin  roost,"  nor  were  they 
troublesome  about  the  farm.  Under  such  protection  as  we 
were  able  to  give,  the  jays  increased  so  that  by  January,  1902, 
there  were  at  least  fifteen  pairs  in  the  "robin  roost"  and  about 
the  farmyard.  They  had  become  so  tame  by  this  time  that  they 


37 

would  come  to  our  windows  to  feed.  Many  other  jays,  also, 
finding  here  a  comparatively  safe  retreat  and  some  food  always 
at  hand,  made  the  place  their  winter  quarters.  In  the  mean 
time,  the  crows  also  had  increased  largely.  They  bred  mainly 
in  the  woods  of  a  neighboring  farm,  but  fed  much  about  our 
place.  As  time  passed  and  they  were  not  molested,  they  be- 
came more  and  more  bold,  taking  eggs  and  chickens  from  the 
poultry  yards,  and  cautiously  searching  among  the  trees,  appar- 
ently for  eggs  and  young  birds.  They  did  this  persistently,  but 
kept  their  movements  so  well  covered  that  they  would  hardly 
have  been  noticed  except  for  the  cries  of  the  parent  birds,  and 
their  habit  of  pursuing  the  crows  which  came  near  their  nests. 
A  few  birds  beside  the  robin  and  the  chickadee  were  able  to 
raise  their  broods  in  1901,  but  in  1902  the  chickadees,  pine 
warblers  and  Maryland  yellowthroats  were  the  only  birds  smaller 
than  a  towhee  that  were  known  to  raise  any  young. 

Kingbirds,  robins,  brown  thrashers,  towhees  and  birds  of  this 
size  were  able,  though  much  persecuted,  to  raise  some  young; 
but,  so  far  as  we  could  discover,  nearly  all  the  smaller  birds, 
such  as  warblers,  sparrows  and  vireos,  failed  to  raise  any,  while 
several  species  made  no  attempt  to  breed  here,  but  left,  pre- 
sumably for  safer  quarters.  The  nests  of  all  these  small  species 
were  persistently  robbed.  Most  of  them  never  hatched  an  egg. 
In  some  places  their  eggs  were  stolen  before  the  full  complement 
was  laid.  The  chipping  sparrows  in  a  small  apple  tree  by  the 
house,  having  lost  their  first  and  second  set  of  eggs,  built  a  nest 
on  a  branch  of  a  tall  pine,  only  to  lose  the  eggs  as  before.  A 
pair  of  vireos  changed  the  location  of  their  nest,  with  similar 
results.  The  ground-breeding  birds  suffered  less.  A  pair  of 
song  sparrows,  as  before  stated,  were  able  to  hatch  their  young. 
Towhees  hatched  and  reared  at  least  two  broods.  The  nests 
of  the  oven-birds  seemed  to  escape  the  marauders,  but  no 
young  birds  were  seen  later  in  the  woods.  No  doubt  the  par- 
tial immunity  of  these  ground-breeding  birds  from  the  attacks  of 
their  bird  enemies  lies  in  the  fact  of  the  careful  concealment  of 
their  nests.  They  are  more  likely  to  be  found,  however,  by  their 
four-footed  enemies. 

Robins,  brown  thrashers,  blackbirds,  kingbirds,  orioles  and 
jays  seemed  better  able  than  the  smaller  birds  to  protect  them- 


38 

selves  from  the  attacks  of  the  common  enemy.  The  jays  seldom 
were  able  to  get  a  robin's  egg  if  there  was  a  robin  within  sight. 
In  such  a  case  the  alarm  was  given,  and  the  jay  was  immediately 
attacked  by  robins.  Both  robins  and  jays  bred  all  about,  and 
fights  between  the  two  species  were  of  daily  occurrence.  Usu- 
ally the  robins  were  engaged  in  driving  the  jays  away  from 
robins'  nests,  but  occasionally  the  jays  seemed  to  be  defending 
their  own  nests  from  the  robins.  The  robins  vigorously  pro- 
tested whenever  a  stealthy  crow  appeared.  Nevertheless,  many 
of  the  robins'  eggs  were  destroyed.  The  present  year  (1902) 
the  crows  have  become  so  emboldened  by  their  immunity  from 
harm  that  they  have  frequented  the  farm  more  than  ever,  so  that 
now  even  the  blue  jays  find  it  difficult  to  raise  young.  Young 
robins  and  jays  have  been  comparatively  scarce.  The  crows 
are  becoming  more  bold,  and  the  situation  grows  worse  as  time 
passes.  There  is  no  time  here  to  discuss  the  economic  position 
of  the  crow,  or  to  enlarge  upon  the  services  of  the  jay  as  an  insect 
destroyer;  the  Board  has  already  received  my  reports  on  these 
matters.  It  is  enough  to  say  here  that,  if  we  wish  to  protect 
our  smaller  birds  and  increase  their  numbers,  both  crow  and 
jay  must  be  kept  within  bounds. 

Our  Massachusetts  laws  do  not  protect  these  birds;  in  this 
they  are  wise.  The  beauty  and  grace  of  the  jay  cannot  com- 
pensate us  for  the  loss  of  many  other  beautiful  and  useful  birds; 
and,  while  the  crow  has  its  place,  and  is  at  times  very  valuable 
to  the  farmer,  it  can  never  fill  the  place  about  the  farmyard  and 
orchard  which  is  now  so  well  filled  by  the  robins,  bluebirds, 
sparrows,  warblers,  vireos,  wrens  and  thrushes.  Crows  and 
jays,  like  all  creatures  of  omnivorous  habits,  are  likely  to  become 
pests  wherever  they  become  unduly  numerous.  Although  the 
crow  has  many  enemies,  there  are  few  crafty  or  powerful  enough 
to  destroy  him.  The  caution  and  intelligence  of  the  crow  are 
proverbial.  Crows,  by  the  strength  of  their  combined  numbers, 
are  able  to  defy  even  the  eagle.  They  have  really  only  one 
effective  enemy  besides  man,  and  that  is  the  great  horned  owl. 
Years  ago,  while  studying  crow  roosts  in  Worcester  County,  I 
found  that  something  was  killing  crows  about  these  roosts.  The 
remains  consisted  mainly  of  feathers,  nearly  the  entire  crow 
having  been  devoured  in  each  case.  After  the  first  fresh  snow- 


39 

fall  I  visited  an  extensive  roost,  finding  the  feathers  and  a  few 
other  remains  of  a  freshly  killed  crow.  At  the  spot  where  the 
crow  was  borne  to  the  ground  were  found  the  strong  imprints 
of  the  characteristic  wing  tips  of  the  great  horned  owl.  These 
owls  habitually  take  crows  from  their  roosts  or  nests  at  night. 
In  return,  the  crows  always  mob  an  owl  if  they  can  find  one  in 
the  day  time.  While  we  have  been  proscribing  the  crow  and 
shooting  it  at  sight,  we  have  been  protecting  it  by  shooting  every 
owl  that  comes  within  range  of  our  guns.  No  doubt  it  is  mainly 
for  this  reason  that  crows  have  multiplied,  in  spite  of  this  perse- 
cution. In  our  "robin  roost"  the  crows  are  now  in  the  ascend- 
ant; even  the  jays  raised  but  three  broods  there  last  season.  One 
brood  was  taken  by  a  hawk  and  one  at  least  by  crows  before 
they  were  fully  fledged.1 

Hawks  are  better  fitted  perhaps  than  any  other  creature  to 
pursue  and  kill  other  birds,  and  certain  of  them  may  be  regarded 
as  among  the  worst  enemies  of  birds;  but  they  have  not  been 
placed  first  in  our  list  of  bird  enemies,  because  they  are  not 
especially  numerous  in  the  vicinity  of  the  farm.  Although  all 
hawks  when  hungry  will  seize  other  birds  whenever  they  can 
get  them,  there  are  only  a  few  that  are  quick  enough  to  follow 
and  catch  small  birds  in  flight.  Most  of  our  hawks,  therefore, 
content  themselves  mainly  with  picking  up  such  insects,  small 
mammals,  reptiles  and  frogs  as  they  can  easily  get,  and  such 
birds  as  they  are  able  to  catch  unawares.  The  Cooper  hawk, 
sharp-shinned  hawk  and  duck  hawk,  which  are  among  the 
greatest  enemies  of  small  birds,  are  not  common  about  the  farm 
at  present,  although  the  sharp-shinned  hawk  is  occasionally 
seen.  There  is  really  but  one  hawk,  in  the  neighborhood,  that 
kills  many  birds  or  chickens,  and  that  is  the  marsh  hawk,  which 
is  now  usually  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  useful  of  all  hawks. 

This  hawk  is  frequently  held  up  as  a  model  by  popular  writers 
on  bird  protection.  Such  expressions  as,  "it  never  touches  a 
chicken,"  and  "seldom  kills  birds,"  have  been  frequently  used. 
Here,  however,  a  hungry  marsh  hawk  will  take  a  chicken  or  a 
bird  when  a  good  chance  presents  itself.  I  have  known  the 
marsh  hawk  to  kill  snipe,  song  sparrows,  young  blue  jays  and 

1  Crows  are  sometimes  attacked  by  a  contagious  disease,  either  identical  with  or 
similar  to  the  roup  of  poultry.  See  "  The  Auk,"  Vol.  XX.,  p.  57. 


40 

many  chickens.  The  bird  is  often  followed  by  the  blackbirds, 
which  may  indicate  that  their  nests  have  been  robbed  by  it. 
All  along  the  southeastern  shore  of  Massachusetts  from  Dart- 
mouth to  Plymouth  this  bird  is  recognized  as  a  chicken  thief. 
It  will  glide  into  the  barnyard,  seize  a  young  chicken  and  bear 
it  away  to  a  tree  in  the  woods  or  low  spot  of  ground,  where 
nothing  will  remain  to  tell  the  tale  but  the  scattered  feathers. 
Well  knowing  the  value  of  the  marsh  hawk  as  a  mouser,  I  was 
for  some  years  loath  to  believe  the  stories  told  by  farmers  and 
poultrymen  of  its  ravages  in  the  poultry  yard;  but  during  the 
past  two  years  I  have  seen  these  birds  strike  and  carry  off 
chickens  both  in  the  yard  and  in  the  open.  Having  lost  about 
forty  chickens,  the  shot  gun  was  brought  into  requisition,  and 
but  two  more  were  lost  that  season.  The  marsh  hawk  could 
not  kill  chickens  when  half  grown,  as  the  birds  were  then  strong 
enough  to  escape;  but  small  chickens  are  not  safe  from  this  bird 
in  our  vicinity  unless  they  can  be  kept  shut  up.  These  birds 
beat  over  the  meadows  and  sweep  over  patches  of  woodland, 
snatching  young  birds  from  their  nests  and  flying  away  pursued 
by  the  screaming  parents.  There  is  little  doubt,  however,  that 
this  hawk,  so  long  as  it  confines  itself  to  its  usual  habitat  in  the 
fields  and  meadows,  is  among  the  most  useful  of  our  native 
birds,  for  there  its  prey  consists  largely  of  field  mice  and  other 
small  mammals  which  are  believed  to  be  mainly  injurious. 

The  only  snake  that  has  been  seen  to  kill  birds  in  this  locality 
is  the  black  snake,  and  as  these  reptiles  are  not  very  common, 
their  depredations  are  not  very  serious.  This  snake  devours 
the  young  ground-breeding  birds,  and  probably  the  eggs  also. 
It  often  climbs  bushes  and  trees,  and,  coiling  itself  around  the 
nests  of  robins,  thrashers  or  catbirds,  devours  the  young  in  the 
most  deliberate  fashion,  the  old  birds  in  the  mean  time  fluttering 
about  in  distress,  or  doing  battle  with  the  enemy  as  best  they 
may.  Occasionally  in  the  summer  the  birds  may  be  seen 
crowding  to  a  certain  tree  or  thicket  and  uttering  cries  of  dis- 
tress. This  is  always  the  signal  for  some  one  to  go  to  their 
relief,  and  nearly  always  a  cat  or  a  snake  is  found  to  be  the 
cause  of  the  trouble.  These  snakes  often  catch  fully  fledged 
young,  when,  or  soon  after,  they  leave  the  nest. 

Skunks  are  so  useful  in  killing  insects  that  the  comparatively 


41 


few  birds'  eggs  they  eat  cannot  count  heavily  against  them. 
Weasels  are  not  plentiful  enough  in  the  neighborhood  seriously 
to  affect  bird  life.  To  what  extent  dogs  and  foxes  destroy 
the  eggs  and  young  of  ground  birds  can  only  be  conjectured. 
The  smaller  owls  and  the  shrikes  or  butcher  birds  kill  some 
small  birds;  but,  as  they  kill  mice  and  English  sparrows,  the 
good  they  accomplish  overbalances  the  harm  done. 

I  approach  the  name  of  the  squirrel  with  some  reluctance, 
for  squirrels  are  general  favorites  among  those  who  appreciate 
the  beauties  of  nature.  Their  grace  and  beauty,  their  sprightly 
and  companionable  ways,  and  their  tendency  to  confide  in  us 
when  allowed  to  do  so,  have  endeared  them  to  many  a  lonely 
soul.  But  the  farmer  considers  all  squirrels  pests,  and  rightly 
so.  There  is  no  animal  which  can  do  the  farmer  so  much 
injury  in  proportion  to  its  size  as  the  squirrel.  Squirrels  not 
only  carry  off  enormous  quantities  of  corn,  but  they  destroy 
far  more  strawberries  than  birds  do,  and  they  ruin  ten  times  as 
many  pears,  peaches  and  grapes  as  they  can  possibly  make  use 
of.  The  fruit  is  bitten,  and  then  thrown  to  the  ground  to  rot. 
They  will  go  over  planted  ground  and  dig  up  the  seed  of 
squashes.  They  will  pull  or  dig  up  the  young  corn  about  as 
fast  as  a  crow.  They  are  the  very  incarnation  of  mischief. 
The  red  squirrel  is  perhaps  the  more  mischievous,  but  the  gray 
squirrel  is  not  far  behind  it.  It  may  be  this  spirit  of  mis- 
chief that  impels  them  to  break  up  the  nests  of  birds.  That 
they  do  this  is  not  open  to  doubt.  A  pair  of  gray  squirrels 
was  seen  in  the  "robin  roost"  in  July,  1900.  They  were  not 
molested,  and  soon  became  so  confiding  that  they  built  a  nest 
in  a  dove  cote  in  the  barn  the  ensuing  winter,  incidentally  driv- 
ing out  all  the  pigeons,  who  left  never  to  return. 

Two  broods  of  young  ones  were  raised  in  the  barn;  then 
nest  building  was  begun  in  the  pines.  The  squirrels  increased 
rapidly,  and  in  1902  six  or  eight  pairs  were  breeding  in  the 
vicinity.  Red  squirrels  were  also  quite  plentiful.  The  gray 
squirrels  made  frequent  attempts  on  the  nests  of  both  jays 
and  robins;  but,  as  both  birds  always  joined  forces  to  repel 
the  common  enemy,  the  squirrels  were  frequently  driven  off. 
They  were  not  seen  to  accomplish  their  object,  but  no  doubt 
they  did  so  in  some  cases.  The  actions  of  the  birds  told  that 


42 

they  well  realized  the  danger,  and  were  determined  to  conquer 
or  die.  The  gray  squirrels  are  not  so  active  as  the  reds;  but 
either  of  them  are  likely,  when  opportunity  offers,  to  eat  birds' 
eggs  or  kill  the  young.  Mr.  F.  H.  Mosher  writes  me  from 
Hyde  Park,  N.  Y.,  that  the  squirrels  there  upset  birds'  nests 
quite  wantonly;  also  that  they  bite  off  the  heads  of  young 
birds  and  throw  the  bodies  to  the  ground.  It  is  difficult  to 
judge  how  universal  such  habits  are  among  squirrels,  but 
where  they  are  observed,  it  is  safest  to  kill  the  squirrels  at 
once. 

I  have  dwelt  at  some  length  on  the  habits  of  the  creatures 
that  contribute  to  restrain  the  increase  of  birds,  that  we  may 
fully  realize  the  importance  of  protecting  birds  against  these 
enemies.  If  the  smaller  birds  are  to  resume  even  their  normal 
numbers,  a  different  policy  must  be  pursued  from  that  hereto- 
fore adopted.  Bird  protection  means  something  more  than 
the  ordinary  interpretation  of  the  term.  If  we  wish  to  protect 
the  smaller  birds,  we  must  banish  or  destroy  any  excess  of 
their  natural  enemies.  How  this  is  to  be  done,  and  just  what 
its  effect  will  be  if  it  succeeds,  is  the  next  subject  for  inquiry. 
These  questions  can  be  answered  only  by  the  experience  of 
the  future. 

The  most  important  conclusion  that  has  been  confirmed 
by  these  two  years  of  bird  study  is  that  the  Corvidce  (crows 
and  jays)  are  very  largely  responsible  for  the  decrease  of  the 
smaller  birds.  I  am  well  aware  that  some  investigators  will 
not  agree  with  this  conclusion;  but  it  has  been  forced  upon 
me  by  the  experience  of  thirty  years  and  the  corroborative 
observations  of  the  last  two.  No  one  can  doubt  that  in  the  great 
plan  of  nature  these  birds  fill  well  their  place.  Their  useful- 
ness as  insect  destroyers  is  well  known;  but  where  they  become 
too  numerous,  their  supply  of  insect  food  is  soon  so  limited 
that  they  must  turn  to  other  sources  for  a  good  part  of  their 
animal  food;  then  small  birds  and  young  chickens  suffer. 
Could  the  crows  and  jays  hold  in  check  those  insects  that,  in 
consequence  of  the  destruction  of  small  birds,  are  allowed  to 
increase,  then  the  destructive  propensities  of  the  crow  family 
need  not  be  viewed  with  alarm.  That  they  can  do  this  is  im- 


43 


probable.  By  protection,  we  have  made  it  possible  for  these 
birds  to  increase.  We  must  remove  this  protection,  or  remove 
the  surplus  Corvidce. 

DOMESTIC  FOWLS  AS  INSECT  DESTROYERS. 

Common  fowls,  if  rightly  handled,  may  be  made  most  useful 
as  insect  destroyers  in  garden  and  field.  We  utilize  the  services 
of  young  chicks  in  the  garden  by  keeping  the  mother  hens 
confined  there  in  small  coops  along  the  borders.  Then  each 
brood  of  little  chicks  can  have  the  run  of  that  part  of  the  garden 
nearest  the  coop,  as  well  as  the  grass  near  by.  Young  chicks, 
kept  in  this  way,  soon  learn  to  eat  such  garden  pests  as  are 
turned  up  by  the  plow  or  other  garden  implements.  They  are 
fond  of  small  caterpillars,  maggots  and  cabbage  plant  lice,  and 
some  of  them  will  learn  to  eat  the  small  larvae  of  the  potato 
beetles.  With  us  they  have  not  learned  to  eat  the  melon  plant 
lice  or  the  squash  insects.  But  few  birds  of  any  kind  have  been 
seen  to  eat  these  pests. 

Young  chicks  may  be  safely  kept  in  gardens  until  five  or  six 
weeks  old,  when  they  will  begin  to  eat  the  vegetables.  Duck- 
lings are  useful,  but  more  destructive  than  chicks.  They  are 
very  fond  of  radishes,  and  will  devour  them  when  very  small. 
All  this  is  not  new  to  many  farmers,  but  not  all  are  aware  that 
large  chickens  or  even  full-grown  fowls  sometimes  may  be 
used  to  check  insect  invasions  in  the  garden.  If  hens  are  kept 
well  supplied  with  green  food,  grain  and  water,  they  may  be 
turned  into  the  garden  occasionally,  to  follow  plow,  cultivator 
or  wheel  hoe.  They  soon  learn  that  in  following  such  imple- 
ments they  will  find  angle  worms,  cutworms,  wireworms  and 
other  insect  food,  and  they  will  seldom  do  much  injury  to  the 
garden  while  so  engaged.  If  they  have  not  been  liberally  sup- 
plied with  such  grain,  green  food  and  water  as  they  need,  they 
will  attack  both  vegetables  and  fruits.  Most  farmers  know 
that  fowls  will  clear  fields  infested  with  grasshoppers,  crickets 
and  army  worms.  Ducks  are  particularly  fond  of  army  worms, 
and  a  flock  of  five  hundred  ducks  ought  to  be  able  to  stop  the 
progress  of  these  destructive  pests  on  any  farm.  It  is  said 
that  young  turkeys  may  be  taught  to  eat  the  larva  of  the  Colorado 


44 

potato  beetle,  and  will  clear  the  vines  of  this  pest.  Some  ducks 
eat  this  insect.  Mr.  E.  H.  Kern  of  Mankato,  Kan.,  writes 
that  his  ducks  cleared  the  bugs  from  the  potato  field.  So  far 
as  his  experience  goes,  all  ducks  like  these  insects,  and  seem 
to  grow  fat  by  feeding  on  them. 1 

Chickens  will  destroy  the  maggots  of  the  common  house 
fly,  and  thus  prevent  the  increase  of  this  pest.  Dr.  Howard, 
chief  entomologist  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, tells  us  that  these  flies  breed  chiefly  in  horse  manure, 
and  also  in  human  excreta.2  He  tells  how  to  prevent  their 
increase  in  vaults  and  manure  piles  by  the  use  of  chloride  of 
lime.  We  find  that  a  few  chickens  confined  where  they  can 
scratch  over  the  stable  manure  are  effective,  and  less  expensive 
than  the  chloride  of  lime.  They  will  spend  much  time  scratching 
and  digging  over  this  manure,  looking  for  partially  digested 
grain,  seeds  and  maggots.  This  scratching  fines  up  and  dries 
out  the  manure,  rendering  it  an  unfit  breeding  place  for  flies; 
but  if  any  maggots  appear,  they  are  soon  eaten. 

While  there  are  some  insect  pests  that  are  not  eaten  to  any 
extent  by  either  wild  birds  or  poultry,  most  of  them  may  be 
controlled  by  one  or  the  other.  Young  chickens,  and  even 
mature  fowls,  eat  a  great  many  weed  seeds.  Fowls  may  be 
used  to  take  the  place,  in  a  measure,  of  the  wild  turkey,  par- 
tridge, heath  hen,  wild  pigeon  and  quail,  once  plentiful  in  Massa- 
chusetts, but  now  in  one  case  exterminated  and  in  the  others 
altogether  too  rare.  The  man  who  raises  one  thousand  chickens, 
five  hundred  ducks  and  a  few  turkeys  each  year,  has  under 
control  a  police  force  sufficient  to  check  any  invasion  of  such 
grass,  grain  or  garden  insects  as  poultry  will  eat;  but  we  must 
still  depend  largely  on  the  wild  birds  to  hold  the  tree-inhabiting 
insects  in  check. 

1  Insect  Life,  Vol.  III.,  p.  398. 

J  Circular  No.  35,  second  series.  Division  of  Entomology,  United  States  Department 
of  Agriculture. 


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